


No Good

by Phoenixfire426



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Assault, Attempted Murder, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Death, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Hate Sex, Jealousy, Love/Hate, Marauders' Era, Murder, Original Character(s), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rape, Recovery, Secret Relationship, Slow Burn, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-08-05 07:55:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 23,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16363910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoenixfire426/pseuds/Phoenixfire426
Summary: They say being good to people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind.  Being the bigger person.  For Sydney Maura that would mean ignoring all the rumours, the icy glares, the nasty comments and cruel tricks. But sometimes being the bigger person doesn't necessarily make you a better person. In Sydney's case it just made her no good.(PREVIOUSLY ON HARRYPOTTERFANFICTION.COM)Rating for later chapters





	1. It's A Slippery Slope

There was a silent gust of wind that flew down the narrow, dark alleyway.  The rain pounded the pebbled ground where puddles of filthy rain water lay.  A single street lamp lit the long, winding backstreet and shutters on windows from the towering buildings slammed shut one by one as the storm worsened.  A clatter of thunder and a bright streak of lightening flashed across the sky, momentarily filling the alleyway with light.  The streetlamp began to flicker as the wind picked up and suddenly went out.  The only light in the now black alleyway were the two wide, yellow eyes gleaming in the darkness, fixated on something. Not daring to move. Not daring to breathe.

From the alleyway on the green where tens of street lamps were still well lit, floated a creature in long, black, tattered robes.  The grass below it now had died and turned into a thick layer of ice. The creature was patrolling, guarding the dead that lay below the ice which was once green grass on top of their graves.  From the alley once the creature had passed, a red fox stood out from the blackness and slowly tip toed towards the green, keeping as low as possible. When it was determined to be safe, the fox made a dash, and swiftly darted into the fortress that is Azkaban Prison.

 

* * *

 

Sydney looked at her surroundings carefully as she walked through the Hogwarts grounds keeping one eye on the ground as to not slip. It had rained overnight and the stones imbedded into the grounds had become extremely slippery. 

As she made her way to her potions class, she could see, far in front of her, the usual band of moronic air heads, gabbing about their hair or lip gloss or some new deadbeat bad boy whom they thought they could tame.  She rolled her eyes and snorted in derision as the three girls giggled.  Samantha Lawrence and Janice Bishop were harmless enough, just typical airhead girls that cared more about the way their hair looked than the substance inside their heads.

But then there was Farrah Bishop.  She was just a horrible human being, if anyone managed to outshine Farrah in anyway, she would make it her mission to sabotage them at any cost.  She particularly didn’t take kindly to Sydney. Sydney and Farrah were close in their first year at Hogwarts.  Sydney was already severely disliked in the wizarding community.  Everyone knew of their family’s trouble and it seemed the other students were already afraid of Sydney, an eleven year old, before they’d even met her.  She supposed the students had also assumed she’d be sorted into Slytherin as her reception at the Gryffindor table was far from warm. 

 

*-*-*-*-*

 

“I heard her father killed her mother!”

“I heard she _helped_!”

The whispers were hurtful to Sydney but at least they were just that, whispers.  And that’s when _he_ made himself known. _Loudly._

“I heard the Aurors are _still_ trying to put a case together to lock her up for good in Azkaban next to her father, but they can’t touch her seeing as she was in the _loony_ bin in St Mungo’s over the summer” He had lied. Lied with the truth.

Tears welled up in the eleven year old Sydney’s eyes as the dark haired boy smirked smugly at her misery.  His grey eyes so cold.

“I heard people should mind their own business.” Snapped another bold first year who was sat opposite Sydney.

Farrah was muggleborn and therefore had no knowledge of who Sydney or her family was, better than that, she didn’t really seem to care.

“Lesson one short stuff,” she said handing her a tissue from her pocket “ _don’t_ let them see that they get to you.”

 

*-*-*-*-*

 

After their first year, Farrah fell in with the ‘cool’ group and adopted a completely new personality. That of The Bitch.

Sydney made it back into the castle and down towards the dungeons, she clutched her potions textbook close to her chest as she remembered the humiliation of the sorting ceremony.

“Hello Maura” came a deep, husky voice close to Sydney’s ear.

Sydney wrinkled her nose in contempt as if there was a bad smell filling her nostrils. _The liar himself_.

Chuckles came from behind her and more footsteps getting louder and louder. “Sydney Maura,” came the familiar drawl “I believe our good friend Sirius here said hello.” Said the infamous Potter himself.

“Yes.” Said Sydney, opening the dungeon door to their potions classroom. “And I believe I blatantly ignored him,” she sighed irately “but thank you for allowing me to point it out in front of all of his friends.”

Guffaws and laughter came from the band of hooligans behind her as he words had clearly not stung the boys enough. They were just warming up. She swung the dungeon door back at the group hard and heard a thud.

“Ow!”

Sydney slid her book onto her desk and took her seat, waiting for the remainder of the class to join them.

“You’re in luck today Maura!” said James, sitting down next to Sydney and swinging his arm around her.  She tried to throw his arm off but his muscly bicep proved too strong, if anything his grip tightened.

“Why’s that then eh Potter?” said Sydney suspiciously as Sirius took the seat the other side of her.

“Because you get the absolute _pleasure_ ,” James Potter said haughtily “of spending the entire lesson with Sirius and me!”

“I think I’ll pass on that, Potter,” Sydney said disinterestedly “Besides I believe you’re sitting in my potions partner’s seat.” She told Sirius. A copper haired boy stood beside Sirius, waiting expectantly for him to get out of his seat.

“Yeah not happening.” Sirius said sneering at the hesitant Slytherin “Keep moving.”

Sydney glowered at the two boys.

“Look, whatever you want or want to do, I actually don’t care, so _leave_.” She spat.

Sirius and James looked at each other, eyebrows raised “We’re not hurting anyone!” Sirius exclaimed. “Plus, I very much doubt we need your permission, love.”

“ _Don’t_ call me _love_!” Sydney hissed as Slughorn entered the classroom.

“Hello, hello, hello” Slughorn muttered as he shuffled into the class clutching his notebooks “grab your partners, class, today we’ll be perfecting our Essence of Dittany potions.”

“Hey neighbour.” Came that familiar rich, rough voice once again.

_'Ugh.'_   Thought Sydney. ' _This is gonna be the longest hour ever.'_

*-*-*-*-*

“…and _that_ is how you pleasure a girl orally.”

Sydney had sat there resting her chin in her hand “No wonder you’re still single.” She muttered.

“Well if you think I could use the practise…” Sirius said smirking at her.

Sydney glared at Sirius and snapped her head back to their potion that was failing miserably. “You know, instead of listing the ways in which you fail to please women,” Sirius let out an indignant snort as James sniggered the other side of Sydney. “You could help me out with this potion.”

Sirius gave her a smug smirk “Fine.” And wandered away from the potion and Sydney.

“For god’s sake” Sydney said rolling her eyes as she stirred the cauldron. “It’s lumpy.” She whined to herself.

“Oh I’ve got just the thing to fix that!” Sydney looked up in time to see Sirius standing in front of her with a cruel smile on his face just before he dropped something in the potion.  Before she knew what happened her cauldron exploded in her face, filling her lungs with smoke and making her eyes stream as they stung mercilessly.  She coughed and spluttered and fell to the floor struggling to breathe. Her ears were ringing so loudly she couldn’t hear Slughorn bellowing at the laughing James and Sirius. She assumed Slughorn made one of her classmates take her to the hospital wing as suddenly someone’s arm was around her waist guiding her towards what she hoped was the hospital wing.

After 3 hours, Sydney was finally able to see again, her voice was hoarse and she could still feel her eyes watering. “uuummpphh” Sydney groaned.

“Oh! Miss Maura, are you still here?” Madame Pomfrey said as she rushed over to another bed “You’re tests came back, your fine, you’ll have a sore throat and croaky voice for a few days but no damage done.”

Sydney rolled her eyes, which she instantly realised was a bad idea as her eyes were still stinging.

_Could have told me that hours ago!_

Sydney rolled off her bed and shuffled towards the door grumpily.  She caught a glimpse of herself in a dusty, small mirror and prayed that she could conjure up hairbrush or even a hairband at this rate just to not look like … well …. Like her cauldron exploded in her face.

As she pushed open the large wooden door to the corridor she poked her head outside.

The coast was clear.

She walked along to the staircases as she attempted to flatten her hair down, the ends singed and dry.

“Such a great look, Maura,” came Farrah’s nasty voice “humiliation really is your colour.” Her gaggle of hen’s all squealed with laughter as they caught a look at Sydney’s scorched hair and singed attire.

“Well I could go for your look, Bishop,” Sydney smiled sarcastically “it wouldn’t be hard, all I’d need to do is stand there and look stupid.”

Farrah flicked her long hair, “Whatever, _freak_.” And made her way to the great hall for lunch with her girl gang in toe.

Sydney shrugged off her latest confrontation and made her way to her dorm room for a well-deserved shower.


	2. Rumours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Is this about yesterday? I was only playing.” He swiped a piece of bacon from her plate as he smirked at her.
> 
> Sydney grabbed his bacon wielding arm before he could take a bite and glowered “Well I don’t want to play, so why don’t you just-“
> 
> “Come on, Maura, you can’t hide it from us. We all know how much you usually like to play.” Sirius winked suggestively.

Sydney sat on the Gryffindor table alone as always toying with the food on her plate.  She was wrapped up in her own thoughts to notice all of the glares from passing girls.  She had never been bothered about making friends at Hogwarts anyway, they all seemed to form opinions about her before they even knew her.  She knew that the way she was acting was bound to drive away potential friends but none of them had ever even bothered to have a conversation with her. If they had they’d find out the truth but instead they’d decided to listen to the silly little rumours that spread like wildfire.  

These rumours were that Sydney was cheap and trashy. That she slept with over 100 people at Hogwarts (who knows, perhaps more outside of school!). That she’s bumped uglies with one of the teachers who had left after her fifth year.  That she’d had sex in every single broom closet in the school.  That she’d had a threesome with two Slytherins. That she banged the head boy on the Quidditch pitch during her fifth year, severely pissing off his ex-girlfriend.  That she lost her virginity to Liam Gabriel when she was 14.

None of those were true.

Ok, none of those apart from one were true.

She’d lost her virginity in her fourth year to Liam Gabriel.  That’s how all of this had started.  It had been nearly 4 years since her dad went to Azkaban, which was the last time she’d seen him, or had any positive social interaction.  She was low, the lowest she’d felt for a while, and more than that, she was lonely. She knew she’d begun to notice boys and vice versa. Liam was a very attractive boy, 17 years old with muscles in all the right places and a charming attitude to match.  She’d heard girls from all years fawn, lust and cry over him and she could see why. 

The day it happened she was put into detention with him.  She had “not done her homework” according to the teacher, however the truth was that Sirius Black and James Potter had played piggy-in-the-middle with “the spawn of a murderer” and then made it burst into flames before she could catch it.  Liam was a prefect so was asked to watch over her detention whilst the teacher marked papers in their study.

She didn’t really remember how it came to happen.  They were talking about their lives, about her classes and his prefect duties, then onto friends.  She supposed at the time he had taken pity on her but looking back perhaps he’d just found his window.  Before she knew it they were kissing and he led her to the back of the classroom into the corner.

Her first time was nothing like she expected it would be. To be honest she didn’t really know what she expected but it definitely wasn’t that.  It was painful to say the least, it didn’t help that Liam wasn’t exactly gentle either. He’d pushed her up against a bookcase, causing one of the books which was stuck at an angle to dig into her back.  Liam had suffocated her with his kisses and when he kissed her neck she could feel him biting down harder than she’d liked, in what she can only assume was an attempt to be erotic although it just caused her to gasp and her eyes to water.  The whole affair had just been chaotic and afterwards left her dazed and confused.  Afterwards he stood there for a few seconds, his hands remained either side of her face, trying to catch his breath.  Sydney remembered not being able to look at him, she’d felt dirty, cheap and ashamed. Within a few seconds, Liam regained his breath and stood up straight, zipping up his flies.  Sydney chanced a look at him to which he smirked and winked at her and without saying a word, left the classroom and Sydney behind.

Sydney couldn’t understand what she had felt.  She was mortified but at the same time wanted him to want her.  She felt incredibly silly the next day as she approached him in the hallway, she stuttered and stammered her way through her first sentence and when she found the courage to look him in the eye, she found nothing but pity.

“It was fun wasn’t it?” he’d asked her with a smile.

She furrowed her brow at him and felt her ears redden horribly. “Is that all it was?”

He’d shrugged and grimaced, stuffing his hands into his pockets awkwardly. “I’m sorry if it had meant something different to you.”

That afternoon, everyone in Hogwarts had found out about their little tumble in professor Arden’s classroom together, how he took her virginity and then she’d begged him to sleep with her again.  And from there, the rumours just snowballed.  Sydney didn’t let them bother her though, there are worse things in this world than secondary school children and their little lies.  Besides, it actually gave her a lot more insight into sex and the crazy things people do for it.  She just felt the need for a connection with someone in order to let them in like that again and it didn’t look like she was going to connect with anybody in Hogwarts anytime soon.

She felt somebody sit down beside her but her attention never strayed from her breakfast nor did she lose her train of thought.

Of course the more rumours came up about Sydney the more people (the guys of Hogwarts) made up.  It was hard for people not to believe these boys when they told their friends they’d had sex with Sydney, as her fake reputation was so infamous.  She was definitely past the point of caring now though, it did bother her at first but now she’d seen the silver lining in it.  With a reputation like hers, no one wanted to get particularly close to Sydney, lest they be dragged down into the dirt along with her.  Only one more year at school and she was free.

Her eyes snapped up from her slowly turning cold plate, realising that a few more bodies had come to join her.  She was surrounded by them in fact.  She sighed folded her arms on the table.

“Is there something I can help you ladies with?” She asked, glaring, as even after 3 showers, she could still smell the burnt cinders of her hair from yesterday’s explosion.

“Oh, don’t be like that Maura!” Sirius said pouting at her “Is this about yesterday? I was only playing.” He swiped a piece of bacon from her plate as he smirked at her.

Sydney grabbed his bacon wielding arm before he could take a bite and glowered “Well I don’t want to play, so why don’t you just-“

“Come on, Maura, you can’t hide it from us.  We all know how much you usually like to _play._ ” Sirius winked suggestively.

With his free hand, Sirius snatched the bacon out of the hand Sydney had in a death grip and held it out of her reach. “Come _on_.” Sirius murmured in a husky voice “ _Play_ with me.”

Sydney scowled at Sirius and threw his other hand out of her grasp. “You’re such a _pig._ ”

“That would make me a cannibal, love.” Sirius smirked as he took a giant bite out of her bacon.

“ _Stop_ calling me _love_.” She spat, grabbing her bag to walk out.

As Sydney walked along the Gryffindor table towards the hallway, Sirius stood up from his seat and clutched at his chest “Be still my heart, sweet, infectious flirtation!” he yelled after her, causing his fellow Marauders and a few onlookers to snigger.

When she made it out the Great Hall without any further disruption, she headed for the staircase and inwardly shuddered.  She knew that the Marauders must’ve heard the rumours about her and between hexes and pranks and humiliating her, they also enjoyed trying what they could to get in her pants.  The thought of _any_ of the marauders thinking about her like that and what they would do whilst thinking about h — she shuddered again.  She wasn’t overly annoyed at the events that had occurred, as everyone knew, she was used to it, but the fact _Sirius Black_ , the one of the most most obnoxious, conceited and pompous boys she’d ever had the misfortune of getting mixed up with, was attempting to use her and then discard her like she was nothing.  He did that a lot; he used girls and then cast them off as it were all a game.  He never cared that he was breaking any of the gullible girls’ fragile hearts.  She did feel for them, but after the first few, she thought that the girls would have decided maybe Sirius wasn’t exactly … well … serious about finding a girlfriend.

Sydney began to walk up the staircase, careful to miss the trick step and made her way towards the Gryffindor common room.  With each step she took she became increasingly aware of her seclusion.  Each step she took echoed down the stairwell, making her become a little paranoid about how slowly she was walking.  She picked up the pace a little.  She left the staircase and began making her way down the corridor towards her house’s dorms.  She was suddenly grabbed from behind and pushed into a wall, she glared at her imposer as she managed to get a glimpse of their face.  Her eyes narrowed once she realised who it was.

“Sirius.” She spat as she glowered at him.  He smirked at her as he leaned towards her, his hands either side of her head against the wall, allowing her no way of escape. “Was I not clear earlier?”

“Hello to you too, Pet,” he breathed, dampening his lips lustrously “Just thought i’d come to tell you,” His eyes strayed to her lips and he inched closer to her body “You forgot your potions book.” He appeared to pull a book out from nowhere and hand it to her, keeping one hand to the right hand side of her head keeping the distance between them minimal.

She looked at the book then back at Sirius with an eyebrow raised. “Gee, thanks.” She couldn’t even attempt to keep the sarcasm out of her voice.  She went to grab the book from Sirius however he suddenly snatched the book out of her reach.

“Well now I feel like I’m owed.” He said with an utterly arrogant grin.

“It’s a schoolbook, Black, not a kidney” Sydney said, her voice dripping with disdain.

“Come on, just a little kiss.” Sirius said almost closing the gap between them, “After all, a girl with your reputation should be used to having to give up a lot more.”

“What can I say?” she snapped, looking at him in disgust “You’re not my type.”

Sydney attempted to shove him away with her hands on his chest, but she only managed to make him budge a few inches backwards.

“Love,” he laughed a throaty chuckle “I’m everyone’s type.”

He removed his hand from the wall and trailed it down her side and began trailing circles with his finger on her hip.

“How about we take this to the dorms.” He breathed. “And I’ll show you how much of your type I am.”

Sydney suddenly giggled at him and took this as her chance to escape and slunk from out of his trap.  She began to sober up as she shook her head at him and gave him a twisted smirk.

“The day I sleep with you Black,” she said disgustedly, gritting her teeth “Will be the day you’re carted off to Azkaban for _rape_ ,” she held her gaze “To join your perverted, beloved family.”

Sirius’ eyes darkened and he began to glare. “Listen you little --” he stopped himself “Do _not_ talk about things you have no idea about.”

Sydney smirked “Hit a nerve, did I?”

Sirius attempted to mask his emotions but failed. “Please,” he feigned nonchalance “You wish.”

“So are you going to follow the family trend?” she asked pretending to be interested “Marry one of your cousins?”

Sirius opened his mouth to spout venom at Sydney however she got there first.

“I guess that’s why you’re so messed up?” she smirked and mocked him “Are your parents brother and sister?”

All of a sudden, something in Sirius snapped.  Something Sydney had never seen in him before. Sirius gripped her arm and clamped down on it like a vice “You think you’ve got me all figured out,” he said gripping tighter as his anger flared. “You’re no better than one of those messed up pure-blood _Slytherin_ fanatics.”

“What like you?” she hissed, wincing slightly with the pain in her arm.

He smirked cruelly at her “No,” he sneered “Like your father.”

He threw her down the hallway by her arm and turned his nose up at her. “You’re a complete whore, you know that?” he snarled throwing the book onto the floor in front of her “Completely _worthless_.” With that he stormed off back in the direction of the Great Hall.

Sydney knew what she said was unfair and unjust, but all she wanted from the marauders was to be left alone.  However she was now highly aware that she just signed her death warrant.

All she wanted was for this year to be a quite one.  However she just messed that plan up completely.

 *

 

In the darkness of the night, from the huge castle emerged a small creature.  It darted off through the grounds keeping low to the ground as if it were stalking prey.  The grass of the grounds brushed against the creature’s stomach and as it got closer to the Herbology greenhouse a light shone on the creature.  It froze as the torchlight got closer.

“Bloody fox.” Grumbled Filch, the caretaker, as he had been patrolling.  He turned and headed back inside the castle.

The fox then unfroze and headed on further into the grounds, getting dangerously close to the Whomping Willow tree.  The furry red fox sniffed the ground and suddenly ducked down low; its stomach completely on the floor, its tail low down and its hind legs crouched, ready to dart off into the night.  From behind the tree came a huge, black dog sniffing the ground and growling with every breath it took.  The fox’s eyes widened as the dog came closer and closer. The anticipation became too much as the fox bounded off through the grounds, however the dog was hot on its tail, snarling at the fox as it snapped its jaws at the terrified creature.  The fox was almost in the dark forest when a glorious stag came bounding out majestically.  The fox changed its course of direction as the animals had decided to team up and chase her around the grounds.  The hellhound attempted to pounce on top of the terrified creature however the fox was too fast as it leapt off into the darkness of the Forbidden Forest.

*

“So it looks like the wrist movement is fairly straight forward” Lily said, feeling the need to fill the silence between them “But it’s the memory behind the charm that’s the tricky part!”

Professor Flitwick was demonstrating the specific hand movement needed in order to produce the Patronus charm.

“I guess.” Sydney said, trying to block Lily out and actually concentrate on being able to do the spell.  She guessed Lily was just a little nervous as she’d never before said more than two words to Sydney and was now forced to spend the remainder of the year sat next to her in Charms class.  She decided to give her a break “Have you thought of a memory?”

Lily’s face broke out into a wide smile “I think so!” she beamed happily, mainly because her desk buddy was finally making an effort into their conversation. “It’s of my mum and dad and sister one Christmas,” she said with a wistful smile “It was such a magical time.” She looked back over to Sydney “What’s your memory?”

A loud snort of derision came from behind them.  Sydney twisted in her chair.  “ _What?_ ” she bit.

“Evans, the only ‘happy’ memories Maura has are the times people copped a feel of her in the broom closet.” Sirius chuckled. “Oh wait, those are mine.”

Lily blushed bright red as Sydney narrowed her eyes at Sirius. “If you were there, Black they wouldn’t be _happy_ memories now would they.”

“You guys could always test that theory.” James laughed.

“No one asked for your input Potter!” Lily snapped. Sydney was shocked to hear Lily’s voice.  She didn’t expect to be stood up for, but if anyone was just as annoyed by the Marauders as her, it was Lily.

James at least had the decency to blush furiously at being told off by Lily. “Hey Evans?” Potter said, regaining his composure. “Go out with me?” he grinned.

It was then Lily’s turn to flush “Over my dead body, Potter.” She grumbled, turning and studying the text in front of her further.

Sirius let out a bark of laughter “Nice try, Prongs,” he said slapping James on the back. “But leave it to the experts eh?” Sirius kicked the back of Lily’s chair “Oi, Evans!” causing Lily and few other classmates to turn.  He winked at her in his typical charming Sirius Black manner.  Lily flushed bright red again and snapped her head back towards the front of the class.  James looked positively furious.

“Oh leave her alone, Black,” Sydney glared at him, before James could get a word in. “You’re such a pompous arse.” Sydney also turned back around in an attempt to ignore the two. Lily glanced at Sydney and gave her a small, grateful smile.

“I didn’t realise you thought about my arse, Marua.” Sirius said. Sydney could hear the teasing in his voice. “Keep up that dirty talk and you’ll have people thinking _extremely_ naughty things.”

Sydney craned her head back around “You’d better watch that filthy mouth of yours, _Black_ ” Sydney spat, her eyes narrowing also. “Before I smack it.”

Sirius smirked darkly “I think you’ll find, if you ask the whole of Hogwarts,” he raised an eyebrow “that _you’re_ the filthy one.”

Sydney scowled and rolled her eyes, looking back towards the professor at the front of the class.  Professor Flitwick was now writing the instructions on the board to which Sydney decided to scribble on a piece of parchment.  She felt something hit the back of her head.  She snapped her head around and narrowed her eyes at the two burly boys, who innocently twiddled their thumbs and looked up at the ceiling.

“Right,” announced Professor Flitwick, clapping his hands together “let’s see if we can’t put this into practise.”

All around the classroom all that could be heard was “Expecto patronum!” but with no outcomes.  Lily seemed to excel in every single class she took, so it came to a surprise to no one, when after her second try a slight grey mist oozed from the tip of her wand.

“Well done Miss Evans!” exclaimed Professor Flitwick “But I expect it to be a few lessons before these charms to take corporial form --”

The professor was cut off by a glorious grey Stag leaping out from the end James Potter’s wand.  The animal soared around the room and was closely followed by a giant, shaggy dog which had radiated from the tip of Sirius Black’s wand.

Professor Flitwick along with the rest of the class gaped in shock, however Lily was scowling with jealousy as the kings of procrastination had managed to perform the charm perfectly in less time than she.  Only Sydney had looked at them as if she had just seen a ghost.  As the shaggy dog came bounding towards her she fell backwards out of her chair, her eyes wide.

“What’s wrong Maura?” asked Sirius mockingly, peering over his desk at her on the floor as his patronus evaporated into the classroom air. “My dog got your tongue?”

“Nothing of yours _Black_ ,” Sydney said viciously as she stood up and pulled her chair up with her “will _ever_ have my tongue.” She flipped her hair at him and continued to concentrate on her patronus charm.

“Good job too,” commented Sirius offhandedly “I’d probably catch something.”

“Mm.” Sydney feigned her interest in Sirius’ rude remark as she scoured her mind for a powerful, happy memory.  _Powerful_ memories she had many, but _happy_ memories not so many.

“Expecto patronum.” She could hear Lily whispering, but once again all that came out was a drip of grey-blue mist.

As Sydney looked around the room she could see many frustrated teenage faces attempting to conjure their individual patronuses, a few of the faces turning red with annoyance.  In fact, almost all of the faces were turning red.  No, _all_ of them were red.  As Sydney observed the room with her brow furrowed in confusion she realised that even the walls were turning red, along with the rows of tables, chairs, board, utensils, wands, even the vapour emerging from a few wand tips that was once a light greyish blue colour had now turned into a light red colour. She turned to Lily with a confused expression on her face. 

_'Well at least Lily’s hair’s the same colour..'_ She thought.

Lily turned to Sydney and suddenly widened her eyes with horror.

“You’re eyes!” she screeched, pointing at Sydney frantically.

Sydney reached up towards her eyes, worry now filling her face. “What’s wrong with them?!” she had begun to feel what felt like tears dripping from her eyes.

The whole class had now stopped to listen and watch the two frenzied girls.  There was a laugh from behind Sydney and Lily and with that Sydney immediately knew who was responsible.

“My Goodness!” said Professor Flitwick as he came over to see what the commotion was “You best go and see the nurse.”  He advised, handing her a tiny pocket mirror.

Sydney looked into the mirror and saw what the problem was.  Her iris was now a deep crimson colour and she had blood trickling down from the corners of her eyes.  Another stifled snigger came from behind her.

She snapped her head around to glower monstrously at Sirius and James, who initially flinched at her extra evil glare.  She felt as though she could launch herself at the boys and maybe throw in an unforgivable curse or two, however she decided on a glare, not allowing them the satisfaction of knowing how she would love to snap them in two.  Sydney gathered her books together and stuffed her pen and parchment into her bag; she clutched her books to her chest as she made her way out of the classroom.

She knew that this look would definitely not deter a few students from being terrified of her.  A couple of fourth year girls stopped and looked at her for a second or two as Sydney looked at them in disdain.

“That’s the one I was telling you about.” One of the brunette girls whispered to the other.  They both trotted off giggling down the corridor.

Sydney carried on towards the nurse’s quarters noting to herself how eerie Hogwarts had become in a colour of blood red.  She began to feel faint and flushed as she walked however she urged herself on as it was not that far to the hospital wing.  Her walking became sluggish as she struggled to breathe, panting and gasping for air.  A high pitched noise rang through her ears as she felt her knees buckle under the pressure of her own weight.  She felt her bones crash against the stone ground of the castle, she could now see spots of blood on the floor as she attempted to steady herself on all fours, however she fell onto her side, gasping at the cold stone touching her now unbearably hot skin.  Her vision began to fade and her eyes grew heavy.  A nauseas feeling swept over her as she closed her eyes.

_Damn you Black._

 

*

“I understand your concern,” Said a muffled, soft voice “but I shall deal with Mr Black and Mr Potter as I see fit.”

“If they are having trouble getting along then it is my responsibility to sort it out!” protested the ever stubborn Professor McGonagall “The three of them are in _my_ house!”

“Are you questioning which house _I’m_ in, Minerva?” came the same silky voice again.

“Of course not, Albus.” Said McGonagall, deflated.

Sydney tiredly, opened up her heavy eyes, allowing them to flutter a few times in order to adjust to the bright lights of the room.  She could see white, pristine walls with white beds next to them, the sheets crisp and clean.  Surrounding each bed was a white, spotless curtain that was able to be drawn.  It was a sea of white.  She noted that she was not complaining though, it was a far sight better to be seeing white than red.

Sydney heard the doors to the hospital wing open, the loud creak echoed around the white room.  “Mr Black, Mr Potter,” Professor McGonagall addressed the boys sternly. “you have a lot of explaining to do!”

“Honestly professor!” piped up the smooth, cocky voice of Sirius “It was a harmless charm!”

“What _I_ would like to know,” The professor huffed “is which one of you conjured it?”

There was a moment of silence.

McGonagall sighed “Why am I not surprised, Mr Black?” she sounded exasperated “I thought after the incident with Mr Snape,” Professor McGonagall spoke now more hushed “I thought we had drummed into you that you were never to put yourself or another student in danger again.”

Sydney’s brow furrowed, she knew that she was listening in on something that ought not to be listened to.

“Forgive me for interrupting Minerva,” came Dumbledore’s soft, gentle voice, “But I thought it would interest you that this conversation is no longer private.”

The curtain was suddenly ripped back and Sirius stood there glaring into Sydney’s eyes.  She sat up properly and narrowed her eyes angrily.  Professor Dumbledore was now nowhere to be seen

“Didn’t your parents tell you it was rude to eavesdrop?” he snarled with more viciousness she’d ever seen him use.  His face transformed into a malicious smirk. “Oh, wait.”

Sydney snorted, not caring how unattractive it was.  “Black, you’ve not exactly got the best family yourself.”

“Stop it you two!” came professor McGonagall’s angry voice “You two are in the gracious house of _Gryffindor_ and yet you’re going at each other like Salazar and Godric!”

“You’re Salazar.” Muttered Sydney to Sirius who opened his mouth to retort.

“ _Enough!_ ” Professor McGonagall hissed. “Detention on Friday night for all three of you!”

Sydney’s mouth gaped as she was certain she had misheard her professor. “The _three_ of us?” she questioned, her nose crinkled at the thought of spending time alone with the worst two members of the Marauders.

“Yes, Miss Maura.” McGonagall stated sternly. “I do not tolerate unruly bickering in my house.” Sirius smirked nastily at Sydney. “Mr Black I do not know what you and Mr Potter are smiling about but you both will be escorted by myself to Professor Dumbledore’s office where he will distribute the remainder of your punishments.” It was Sydney’s turn to smile wickedly at the two scowling boys. “I suggest you get a bit more rest Miss Maura.  Then I assume you will be released when seen fit.”

That day spent lying in bed was a long, tedious day for Sydney as she was not particularly tired therefore became increasingly bored, that was until she heard the large, oak doors of the hospital wing creak open slightly and then close softly again.  She heard footsteps coming towards her, getting louder and louder as the noise echoed through the room, the sounds waves ricocheting off the walls.  An unfamiliar face suddenly peered around her bedside curtain and broke out into a wide smile.

“Ah!” said the boy, now coming into full view. “It’s nice to see you’re awake!”  He was tall and muscular and he had dishevelled caramel blonde hair and hazel eyes.  “You probably don’t remember me.” He stated, although it sounded like a question.  “Miles Davies.” He said holding his hand out, introducing himself. “Hufflepuff.”

“Hi, Miles Davies,” said Sydney slightly taken aback but also slightly amused by this boys boldness. She took his hand and shook it. “I’m--”

“You’re Sydney Maura.” He stated, nodding. “I know who you are.” He smiled slightly.  Miles decided to make himself comfortable and sit in the chair next to the bed. “Do you know you talk in your sleep?” he asked, amused.

Sydney awkwardly shifted and furrowed her brow.  She felt as though this was something he’d expected her to study for.

“I was the one who brought you here,” he clarified, sensing what was going through her mind. 

Sydney “Oh,” Sydney said, a confused look still on her face. “Well thanks, I guess.”

Miles smiled bashfully “You could thank me by seeing me sometime?” he asked, a hopeful look on his face.

_'Why do people keep thinking I owe them!?'_

“Err…” she started with a slight look of annoyance on her face.

“I mean like, say 'Hello' when you pass,” he chuckled “Don’t be a stranger, that kind of thing.” He threw a dazzling smile her way. “I’d like to get to know you.”

Caught off-guard by his good-looks and bold manner, Sydney nodded and looked up at him. “I don’t see why not.” She pondered.

“Good.” he said touching her shoulder in a comforting manner.  “Anyway,” he said standing up and ironing out the creases in his robes, the yellow crest of Hufflepuff displayed proudly on his chest. “I’d better be off, I have classes to attend.” He winked at Sydney “Wouldn’t want to disappoint the professors now!”

She gave him a small smile and rolled her eyes. “Goodbye Sydney Maura!” he said continuing to grin at her.

Sydney half-smirked in return “See you later Miles Davies.”

Miles had left the hospital wing at around one o’clock therefore Sydney spent the remainder of her day arguing with the nurse to let her out and due to this she was finally discharged at six, just in time for dinner.  Sydney ran down the multiple corridors in order to arrive at the Great Hall just before the puddings were distributed.

As Sydney walked through the Great Hall entrance she looked down the Gryffindor table for a secluded spot to sit in.  As soon as she sat down something caught her eye from across the hall.  Miles, who sat at the Hufflepuff table waved animatedly to her and she merely laughed and smiled awkwardly in return. Sydney then cast her eyes downwards, just wanting to be left alone.  She began scooping piles of chips onto her plate and then sided it with a beef burger.  She bit into one of her chips as she could feel eyes on her. She looked up the Gryffindor table to find Samantha Lawrence, Janice Fowler and Farrah Bishop glowering and glaring at her from only a few seats down.

“I see you’re doing it again _Maura_ ,” spat Farrah, looking at Sydney’s plate with disgust.  Farrah then changed her view over to the Hufflepuff table directly in the direction of the boy she had just been greeted by.  “Making another well thought of boy a castaway by getting your mitts on him?”

Sydney looked over at the Hufflepuff table briefly and snorted “Please, Bishop,” Sydney laughed at the claim and shook her head at the dark-haired girl “I have no interest in him.” She informed Farrah. “At _most_ he would be my friend.”

Farrah laughed as if she thought the whole concept was absolutely hilarious.  She pushed her two minions to laugh with her, to which, _of course_ , they obeyed.  “ _Friends?_ ” she and her clique fell into giggles “What an idiotic notion!” she hissed “You don’t have any friends!” her laugh was now more like a squeal as she looked to her friends for encouragement. “That’s why you sit at the Gryffindor table for every meal,” she had a wicked smirk slapped across her face “ _alone_.”

Sydney merely picked up another chip and stuffed it into her mouth rolling her eyes at the pathetic teenager.  “Whatever.”

Unsatisfied with Sydney’s reaction Farrah stood up and walked around Janice so that she was now standing opposite Sydney.  Farrah put her hands onto the table so she was almost leaning over her, attempting to be intimidating.

“I guess you’re used to it though.” Sydney could see the wretched gleam in Farrah’s eyes. “Maybe one day they’ll have a cell ready for you in Azkaban next to your death eater father’s.”

Sydney could not help it.  Farrah had made something inside her snap and all she could see what white hot rage and fury.  Sydney stood up rapidly and her wild eyes managed to catch a glimpse of Farrah’s terrified face before Sydney’s forehead swiftly and brutally collided with Farrah’s nose.  Sydney clasped her forehead and swore as it pulsated with pain, however it was obvious where the most damage was done.  Farrah was rolling around on the floor, clutching her nose in agony as blood dripped down from her nose.  The entire hall fell into silence and stared at the two girls in shock at what had just occurred.  Samantha and Janice ran over to the aid of their ring leader which resulted in a lot of squealing, shrieking and arms flapping and flailing.

“You’re such a freak, Maura!” shrieked Farrah, her insult muffled by her hand that was covering her hand and nose, the blood now dripping off of her chin.

Sydney sat back in her seat coolly and took another of her chips and began to chew on it.  The Great Hall had gone deathly silent as she looked up at the three wide eyed girls “You might want to go to the hospital wing for that.” She said wiping her own nose and then pointing to Farrah’s. “And _don’t_ talk about my family.”

“You’re completely crazy!” screeched Janice “You know that?!” The three girls linked arms and hurriedly left the scene shooting her dark and disgusted looks at Sydney as they went.

Sydney smirked into her dinner causing a few cowardly Gryffindors to scoot down a few seats away from her.  Once she had finished her dinner she pushed her plate away from her and began to walk out of the Great Hall, receiving glowers from Farrah’s followers and admirers and also obtaining a few looks of awe.  As she turned out of the Great Hall she could see in the distance professor McGonagall marching angrily towards Sydney.

_'Oh crap.'_

“Miss Maura!” barked the professor, her brow furrowed. “I have just received disturbing news that you _attacked_ Miss Bishop?!”

Sydney sighed. “Professor,” A look of exasperation evident on her face. “you know how Bishop is!” Sydney looked around the corridor, students walking past the two slowly, attempting to listen in on their conversation. “She was standing over me and I accidentally stood up too fast!” Sydney shook her head “It was a huge misunderstanding.”

“I know fully well that Miss Bishop has a tendency to over exaggerate,” the professor scowled “However, I also know fully well what _you’re_ like, Miss Maura.” The professor scolded. “You _must_ control your temper.” She looked over her spectacles at Sydney “Therefore you will serve detention with me for the next two Saturdays.”

Sydney scowled but nodded. “Yes professor.”

As professor McGonagall walked off, Sydney continued her journey towards the Gryffindor common room but before she even got to the stairs she saw all four of the Marauders heading her way.

_'Double crap.'_

She turned instantly and started to walk in the opposite direction.

“Maura!” an unexpectedly and unnervingly cheery voice came from behind her.

Sydney sighed and closed her eyes, squeezing the bridge of her nose as the impact of head-butting a rather tall 17 year-old had just caught up with her. “What?” she said, sounding defeated. “I’ve had a particularly bad day, so if you _don’t_ mind, I’d really like to just go back to the common room.”

“Oh don’t be like that Maura,” James said with a grin “Besides, we just came over to congratulate you!” he said swinging his arm around her shoulder and redirected her in the direction she was originally going – towards the common room.

“For what?” she said suspiciously.

“For smacking the crap out of Bishop of course!” he laughed. “We saw the handy work you did on her nose!”

“There goes my broom cupboard partner.” Sirius scowled behind them.

Sydney narrowed her eyes. “Be a bigger man-whore, Black.” She said sarcastically.

Sirius snorted pointedly, which Sydney chose to ignore.

“Did you get in much trouble?” asked Peter inquisitively, almost like he was hoping she did.

“Two Saturday detentions.” She grumbled. “Grindylow.” Stated Sydney as they reached the portrait to the Gryffindor common room.

“Well don’t forget about our date Friday night!” James laughed loudly. Sydney looked at him with disgust. “Sirius, you and I have detention?” he reminded her.

Sydney looked around the common room and snorted as she noticed a few members of the house staring at James with his arm around her, but only one was glaring at her.

“Oh,” she said shrugging off his arm “yeah.” She felt too on edge with James’ arm around her “I assume Evans has finally accepted to be your wife then, Potter?” Sydney mocked him lightheartedly.

James looked at her an eyebrow raised. “Not _quite_ yet,” he replied slightly downbeat. “why?”

“It’s just that I’m receiving a death glare from your bride-to-be.” Sydney shrugged.

James looked around at Lily who rapidly snapped her head away from the two.  James turned back to Sydney. “Well, well,” he said, a moronic grin on his face, one that Sydney was not pleased to see. “it seems as though you and I will be spending more time together then Maura.”

Sydney looked at James with horror. “Please _no_.”


	3. No One Loyal Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suddenly Sydney turned to face him, her blonde hair swished behind her and she leant towards him seductively, forcing him to look into her large, pale blue eyes, as she twisted a strand of hair around her finger. “Of course it is handsome,” she batted her eyelashes once at him, causing James to feel slightly hypnotised by her until he noticed a furious girl with flaming red hair storm past them and out of the Great Hall. Sydney shivered and cringed, sitting back up straight again and tucking back into her egg. “You owe me a butterbeer for that.”
> 
> James snorted. “Done.”

“Right, the instructions to making Draught of the Living Death is in your Advanced Potion-Making Book, pages 201 to 202. Hurry up now!”  called out professor Slughorn as he had introduced the Gryffindors and Slytherins to the lesson.

Sydney sighed and stood up to get the ingredients for her potion while her new partner leaned back on his chair twiddling the wand in his hand.  She had never pegged James Potter for being a lazy person as he had always had good grades, was captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and was always animatedly pursuing Lily Evans.  However he had now just turned around to his best friend and began laughing and chucking bits of crumpled up parchment at Severus Snape’s head, who sat there fuming. 

After the last week’s potion lesson’s events including an exploding cauldron, courtesy of Sirius, Professor Slughorn had separated the two and stuck her with James instead, much to James’ delight.  Sydney knew the only person James would be happier with as a partner would be Lily herself. 

Sydney turned her head back around to the potions cupboard and picked up the asphodel in an infusion of wormwood, valerian roots and sopophorous bean, gripping hold of them tightly as she half juggled them in her arms.  She suddenly felt a piece of crumpled paper hit the back of her head causing her to drop her ingredients on the floor.  She turned around and glared at James and Sirius.  Sirius had decided to pretend to be in an in depth conversation with Peter who looked confounded, meanwhile James was pointing at Sirius, the culprit.

Sydney gathered up the ingredients and picked up the closest ingredient from a shelf in the potions cupboard, Jobberknoll feathers.  She strolled back to her seat next to the lazy James and sat down giving the ingredients to James who had already had his book open at the correct page.  Sydney turned around to Sirius and smiled.  Sirius raised an eyebrow at the cheery schoolgirl who usually greeted him with a glare or scowl.  He was about to open his mouth to comment however before he could utter a word Sydney had dropped a handful of Jobberknoll feathers into his half brewed potion.  He and Peter looked into their potion which had now turned into light grey colour after they had been brewing it to perfection not two seconds ago.   Sirius narrowed his eyes at Sydney who continued to smile at him as James persisted with their own potion.

“You’re a right _cow_ Maura, you know that?”  Spat Sirius, looking into his now ruined potion.  Sydney merely shrugged her shoulders and twiddled her fingers at him before turning back around to help James with the potion.

“You should go easy on him you know.” Muttered James, continuing to look at their potion.

“Easy on _him_?” asked Sydney incredulously, she then shook her head and continued, with trouble, to cut the sopophorous bean.  “Potter, please remove your head from your arse.”

James started laughing as he stirred the pot.  “In all honesty, he’s a good guy.”

It was then Sydney’s turn to chuckle as she began forcefully stabbing at the bean “Yes because _all_ of you have been so great to me these past few years,” she said angrily stabbing “you think I should just lie down and take it?”

“Isn’t that what you do for all the other boys?” Sirius’ husky voice murmured in her ear.  Sydney waved the knife in the air to remind him of the tool she had in her hand.  “Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to play with knives?”

“Nope,” Sydney responded “So if I were you I’d steer clear.” She said brandishing her knife coyly.  Sirius rolled his eyes, falling back on his chair, staring at his spoilt potion.

As the lesson drew to a close professor Slughorn announced the winners of the lesson and to Sydney’s dismay it was not her and James despite her efforts in sabotaging her classmate’s potion.  Lily Evans and Severus Snape were the winners.

Sydney picked up her bag and swiftly exited the classroom with James hot on her tail.  “You know,” James said, causing Sydney to jump as he sneaked up behind her “You’re not as bad as you seem.”

“Well thank you, Potter!” Sydney said sarcastically, narrowing her eyes at him and internally smacking herself for using his first name. “Glad it took you only _seven years_ to grow up and actually have a conversation with me.”

“What can I say,” James grinned smugly “I’m a fast learner.”

Sydney raised an eyebrow at him as they walked together towards their next class, Sydney had realised that Sirius was glowering a hole into the back of her head due to stealing his best mate.  She could hear him muttering to himself angrily and scuffing his feet, keeping himself behind as he obviously didn’t want to walk alongside Sydney.  She turned around to look at Sirius and smiled wickedly to which she received a nasty glare and a middle finger.  Sydney threw her arm around her new pal, James.

“You know Potter,” she said innocently “I was thinking of joining the Quidditch team,” at this Sirius snorted. “I was wondering when try-outs were.” She smiled “If it helps, it would annoy Lily immensely to see you helping me out?”

James narrowed his eyes at her, but then gave a tiny smile. “Next Sunday at 11.00 am.” He nodded, “What position would you be trying for?”

Sirius had now caught up with them a little more in order to hear their conversation better. “Reverse cow-girl?” sneered Sirius

“ _Chaser_.” She informed him, ignoring Sirius.  Sirius raised his eyebrow at her and snorted at her incredulously. James however nodded.

“You’ll only have a week to practise.” James warned.  Sydney nodded. “I’ll put you on the list then.” He told her.  Sirius looked at his friend his jaw agape and at this point he found his voice.

“James, mate!” he cried as he pushed himself between the two of them, looking at James as if he had grown a third head. “You can’t seriously –no pun intended – be willingly to let this - this,” he waved his hand at Sydney “ _devil girl_ ,” he spat “try out for _our_ team just for _some girl_!”

James advanced on Sirius “Lily Evans is _not_ ‘ _some girl_ ’!” he growled.  “Besides, who knows,” he looked at Sydney and winked “she could be good!”  Sydney rolled her eyes at the innuendo.

At that moment Sydney saw Miles Davies strolling towards her with a silly grin on his face.  Sydney smiled in return.

“Hi Miles Davies.” Sydney said smirking, reiterating their last conversation.

“Hello Sydney Maura.” Miles replied.  He turned to James and Sirius and his expression hardened.  “Potter,” he nodded towards James and then focused on Sirius “ _Black_.” Miles almost growled at him.

“Davies.” Said James hardly looking at the boy, however Sirius said nothing at all and continued to glare at Miles.

“Sydney,” Miles said, smiling once more at her “sit next to me in class?”

Sydney nodded dumbly “You have Defence against the Dark Arts now?” she asked. Miles nodded happily.  “Okay well I’ll catch you up then.” She said looking towards the still cowling James and Sirius.

Miles nodded and turned on his heel and made his way to class while the other three stood there looking at one another.  Sydney gave the other two questioning looks, James opened his mouth to inform Sydney on the situation, however Sirius got there first.

“How do you know _him_  Maura?” Sirius asked her, looking at the wall behind her.

“For your information, _Black_ , he took me to the hospital wing” she practically spat his name “after your little prank the other day.”

Sirius looked at James and then at Sydney, ignoring her last comment. “He’s not a good guy,” he said sternly “and if you were smart you would stay away from him.”

Sydney looked towards James who now had the same hard-hearted look on his face. “Well let’s say for arguments sake that I’m not smart,” she debated “What makes you think that I’m going to take whatever you say seriously?”

“You’ll just have to take our word for it.” James said firmly.  Sydney scoffed and turned on her heel, heading towards her next class.

As Sydney entered the classroom, she scanned for her new Hufflepuff friend and managed to find him sitting next to the window, leaning back on his chair, looking out at the grounds.  Sydney dropped her bag down and fell into the chair next to him.  He looked around to her and gave her a warm smile.

“Nice to see you again gorgeous!”

Sydney blushed under the flattery she was not used to and immediately got out her book.

“Indeed.” She retaliated.

“I suppose that Black and Potter have informed you of our – shall we say – misunderstanding?”  He asked, an amused smile playing on his lips.

Sydney shook her head.  “They merely just told me that I shouldn’t be around you.”

Miles laughed. “And yet, here you are.”

Sydney just smiled at him as the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, professor Pennyworth opened the door and strolled into to the classroom making her presence known by waving her wand and allowing the chalk to screech down the blackboard as it spelt out the work ‘ _Inferius_ ’.

“Silence please,” she said monotonously “Now turn you page to 678.”

We all flicked through the pages as the professor began to write on the board, in the book Sydney began to read ‘ _Inferi are corpses, dead bodies that have been bewitched to do a Dark wizard's bidding._ _They are created through the magical branch of Dark Arts called Necromancy.’_

Sydney’s concentration was interrupted by Miles’ voice whispering in her ear “I hear that you’re trying out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.” She could hear the smirk in his voice “It’ll be nice to have a little friendly competition.”

Sydney averted her gaze to Miles a questioning look on her face. “You play?” she breathed.

He winked at her and flashed his badge “Do I play?” he scoffed playfully. He flashed a badge at her. “Quidditch captain.” He muttered.

Sydney was impressed. “What position?”

He laughed quietly “Chaser.” He looked at her with a coy smile on his face “I hear that’s the position you want?” Sydney nodded in reply “I probably shouldn’t, but I can help you out if you want?”

"Hang on," Sydney realised “I’d only just asked James to put me on the try-outs list.” She furrowed her brow. “How did you know?”

Miles grinned at her and tapped his finger against his nose. “A Quidditch Captain has his ways.” He replied evasively. “So, want help with getting onto the team?”

Sydney nodded and grinned “That would be great.” She whispered “I’m free next period?” she suggested.

“Perfect.”

*

“Not bad Sydney!” Miles exclaimed as Sydney floated down towards him “It seems as though you’ve got the basics down,” he smiled “Although, Potter has outrageously high expectations of his team,” he said, thinking to himself.  “You’re going to need at least one trick shot in order to impress Potter, if not at least get his attention.”

“Okay,” Sydney said.  She paused for a few seconds. “Like what?”

Miles laughed and flew closer to Sydney “Nothing fancy,” he said nonchalantly “Just something to make you stand out from the rest of the students.”

Sydney smiled and winked at Miles cheekily “Easy.”

She flew towards the goalposts, quaffle in her hand.  She threw the quaffle into the air and swung her leg around while her broom moved with her, kicking the quaffle into the right goal.  She turned to Miles and grinned.

“Very nice indeed Sydney,” he said slowly clapping his hands. “But I think we’d better call it a day.”

Sydney looked a little crestfallen “Why?” she asked.

Miles nodded towards two angry looking boys walking towards the Quidditch pitch holding their brooms in their hands.  Sydney growled at them for ruining her Quidditch session.  She flew down towards them a broad grin on her face.

“Afternoon boys!” she said cheerfully “See anything you like?” she could hear the double-entendre in her voice and immediately rolled her eyes at herself.

_'Way to add fuel to the fire, Sydney.'_ Her inner self growled.

“Perhaps lose the kit, then we’d enjoy ourselves much more.” Said Sirius replying to her slutty alter ego.

“What I would like to know,” commented James harshly, cutting off Sirius’ flirty banter “is why you’re practising Quidditch with _him_ , when we specifically warned you not to go hear him.”  Sydney went to open her mouth to retort however James cut her off. “If you want any chance of getting on the _Gryffindor_ team, you will _not_ practise with _him_.” He said glaring at Miles.

“He’ll use you to beat us.” Sirius said, a scowl apparent on his lips.

“You two are _children_!” Sydney argued “You realise that?”  She realised however that arguing would not get her any closer to being on the team. “But if that’s what it takes to be on the team,” she looked towards James and then glared at Sirius “fine.”

*

A week later, James awoke on Saturday morning in a splendid mood, the help Sydney had been giving him had Lily almost fighting for his attention, which had made James warm much more now to Sydney and they’d actually become rather good friends.  He was just that much closer to Lily Evans, therefore, much to Sirius’ dismay, he and Sydney were now on first name basis.  James sprung out of bed to see Remus and Peter still laying-in, Peter snoring loudly.  He looked towards Sirius’ bed to see that it was empty, making James shake his head in disappointment as he knew that Sirius must have spent the night with Farrah, who, to the great disappointment of Sydney, was now out of the Hospital Wing with a fully healed nose.  He strode towards the bathroom and took a shower. He was spending his day at Hogsmeade with Sydney, which they both knew would shock everyone including Lily.  That thought made him a tiny bit giddy so he had to make himself look good for the day to _really_ give Lily to be something to be jealous about.  He was meeting Sydney in the common room at 10 o’clock and going down to breakfast with her so he had plenty of time before he had to be ready.

Leaving the bathroom with a towel around his waist, he could feel the remnants of the water droplets from the shower dripping down his muscled abs, he pulled on his underpants before drying himself completely.  He pulled on his jeans and a pinstriped blue and white shirt and towel dried his hair before throwing the damp towel onto Peter’s sleeping face, to which he received an unhappy grunt from the boy.  He ran a hand through his hair and then proceeded to make his way down towards the common room where a scowling Sirius was sitting, James sat down opposite him.

“Listen mate,” he began as he was sick of Sirius’ recent attitude “I get that some girls may like this bad boy, moody attitude you’ve got going on,” he said waving his hand towards Sirius, whose scowl had become worse.  “But I’m really getting tired of it, okay?” Sirius had been in a mood ever since James had sat with Sydney in their potions lesson.  “So cut it the fuck out.”

“James, you’re going to Hogsmeade with _her_?!” Sirius suddenly exploded “This is _Maura_!” he spat “She’s always just been … well _Maura!_ ” He exclaimed.  “And now you’re all of a sudden best friends with the slut?”

“Why do you want to hate her so much?” James asked angrily, now standing over his friend. “Is it because she mocked your family situation?” he questioned “because, I hate to tell you mate, a lot of worse people have said a lot of worse things!”  Sirius merely scowled again, to which James replied “Now go and take a shower,” Sirius raised an eyebrow at him “You stink of _Bishop_.” Sirius then stormed off to the boys dormitories without another word.

The common room had been slowly growing in population, only a few people had seen the spat between James and Sirius but it seemed as though it was only a few third year girls who would blush and giggle as soon as James even glimpsed at them.

“Alright arseface?” came a voice from behind him.  James turned around at Sydney and grinned.

“Breakfast?” he asked.

She nodded. “Breakfast.”

James looked Sydney up and down and nodded, she was dressed just as she normally does, nicely but not in the slutty manner than everyone expects her to.  She was dressed in light blue, snug jeans with a white, elegant strappy top.  James had noticed that she was gorgeous, something that he hadn’t noticed before, however Lily’s beauty outshone Sydney’s by far.  Then again, he could admit that he was biased on the topic.  Her normally curly hair was now straight and due to this it now reached her waist, she had worn a little more makeup today, as did the rest of the girls on Hogsmeade days, her eyes were thinly lined with eyeliner but she continued to look rather natural.  They began their walk down to the great hall and exited through the portrait door.

“Where do you fancy on going then today?” asked Sydney curiously.

“Spintwitches is a _must_ ,” said James as Sydney rolled her eyes, predicting his choice “and the Three Broomsticks.”  He grinned as Sydney nodded “What about you, Sydney?”

“Um,” she pondered “perhaps Honeydukes?” she suggested, slightly hopeful.

James nodded, with a sigh of relief. “I half thought you were going to say Gladrags.”

Sydney laughed and shook her head as they entered the Great Hall.  They walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down, James took his usual plate of everything he could get his hands on.

“So are you excited for the try-outs tomorrow?” asked James, shovelling bacon into his mouth.

“I guess,” said Sydney “I think I’m more nervous than excited” she admitted looking at her fried eggs.  They wiggled at her like little boobs.

_'Maybe I am a slut…'_ She thought with an amused attitude.

James smiled at her “You’ll be fine,” his voice dragged her eyes away from her provocative breakfast “I saw you playing the other day and you’re not bad.”

Sydney smiled “Thanks.”

James and Sydney conversed and laughed as more students began to file into the hall to eat their breakfast until they heard a few girls sitting at the Ravenclaw table begin to hiss and whisper.

“She’s such a _slut_!” said one, James could see to be a dark haired seventh year.  He looked towards Sydney who merely had an amused look on her face.

“I know, wasn’t she with _Miles Davies_ the other day?” another hissed, her eyes wide.

“Exactly, and now she’s moved onto _James Potter_!”  The brunette said, the jealously evident in her voice.  “Who’s next?” she squealed “ _Sirius Black_?!”

Sydney had begun to roll her eyes, however the amused smile continuing to play on her lips.

“Well, Mary MacDonald in 7th year says that she and Sirius Black flirt like it’s going out of fashion!” said the blonde sat with them. “So she may well be headed that way soon!”

“Anyway, I heard she’s just sleeping with James Potter to get onto the Quidditch team.” Spat the same blonde girl, glaring at the back of Sydney’s head who had begun to blush she had mouthed ‘sorry about this’ to James.  He had concluded that Sydney had heard a lot of bad things about herself as the comments didn’t seem to faze her much.

Soon the whole hall was bustling with students arriving for breakfast and in the crowds came Remus and Peter who had grown used to the presence of Sydney and somewhat enjoyed her company.  But no Sirius, he had grown angry that his friends had so easily accepted Sydney whilst he had not, but James knew it was more than this why he would not come down.  James looked down the table and could see Farrah hastily searching their little group to catch a glimpse of Sirius.  Sirius had now also grown tired of Farrah now it had been two week, her incessant shrieking and pet-names had obviously proved too much for Sirius to handle.  James laughed to himself as he recalled Farrah calling Sirius ‘Boobila’.

“Morning guys!” said Peter sitting down happily “You two ready for your date?” he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, causing Sydney to laugh.

“It’s not a date, Pete,” James said rolling his eyes, digging into the hash brown on his plate.

Suddenly Sydney turned to face him, her blonde hair swished behind her and she leant towards him seductively, forcing him to look into her large, pale blue eyes, as she twisted a strand of hair around her finger.  “Of course it is handsome,” she batted her eyelashes once at him, causing James to feel slightly hypnotised by her until he noticed a furious  girl with flaming red hair storm past them and out of the Great Hall.  Sydney shivered and cringed, sitting back up straight again and tucking back into her egg.  “You owe me a butterbeer for that.”

James snorted. “Done.”

*

Hogsmeade with Sydney had been going great, they had visited Honeydukes where they bought liquorish wands, chocolate cauldrons and Sydney, for no sane reason apparent to James, had bought a blood flavoured lollipop, which she chucked away immediately deeming it ‘disgusting’.  Afterwards they went into the Quidditch shop ‘Spintwitches’ where James bough himself new Quidditch gloves.  The pair made their way to The Three Broomsticks, James munching on his chocolate cauldrons while Sydney chewed on her liquorice wand, the conversation somehow strayed to Sirius and Farrah.  Sydney was laughing so hard that she was sure she was going to choke on her mouthful.

“She wrote him a poem?!” she cried, literally through tears of laughter.

“You are my sunshine, you are my rain, you are my personal brand of cocaine.” James recited through laughs.

They stumbled through the doors of the Three Broomsticks clutching to one another desperately, continuing to hold their sweets while laughing hysterically.  As James looked up he saw Sirius sitting there in a booth Farrah talking animatedly while Sirius glared at the laughing pair.  He was clearly uninterested in whatever his girlfriend had to say but also positively livid at his best friend and the girl he deemed the ‘spawn of Satan’ hanging out and no doubt having a splendid time.  James couldn’t help but laugh harder if it were possible and as soon as Sydney also looked up she felt a few more tear drops cascade down her face as she clung to James.  They sat in a booth and finally managed to compose themselves and James bought the butterbeers that he owed Sydney to which she had quickly knocked the first two back while James was still half way through his second.  He gave her an incredulous look as she finished, to which she just smiled dopily, a glazed look in her eye.

“I’m going to go to the bathroom.” Sydney said standing up, she stumbled slightly as she left causing James to laugh fondly at her.

The day had been going so well, James was becoming rather fond of Sydney, in a purely platonic manner of course, as no one would be able to steal his heart like Lily Evans had.  James was, however, having difficulty with the strain his new friendship with Sydney was putting on his current friendship with his best friend, Sirius seeing as Sirius had stormed out with Farrah not moments after they sat down in their booth.  Before he could even think of a solution, his table was surrounded by several Slytherins, the likes of whom included, Evan Rosier, Rabastian Lestrange, Regulus Black, Lucas Avery and Tobias Mulciber and Severus Snape.

“Slither on you snakes,” James said venomously grabbing a hold of his wand. “before I make toads out of all six of you.”

“You’re very courageous for a lone Gryffindor, aren’t you?” hissed Evan, the malice in his voice overpowering.

“Very cowardly, you all are.” He growled “Six of you and one of me,” He clapped his hands mockingly “very brave.”

“Lily doesn’t seem to mind.” Piped up Severus smugly.

James was now standing, his wand raised “Don’t you _dare_ speak her name,” he spat venomously “after what you called her.”

Severus smirked maliciously “Yet the _mudblood_ would _still_ prefer me to the likes of you.”

James made a lunge for the greasy haired, scrawny boy, however Lucas and Tobias now had a hold of the struggling James, but compared to the two Slytherin brutes James didn’t stand a chance.

“Not so tough are you now, huh Potter?” jeered Tobias, and he quickly clobbered James’ stomach with his right fist.

James reeled over, spluttering and wincing.  He could see a pair of well-polished, black, expensive shoes, step in front of him where Severus had been only moments ago.  Regulus Black now stood in front of him, matching his height and statue, he may have been a year younger, however the status that the Black family held was unfathomable.  The other Slytherins respected and listened to him without question.  James drew himself up to his full height and looked Regulus square in the eye as the brawniest Slytherin members held him back.

“Now,” Regulus began “what strikes my curiosity,” he paced in front of James “is why, to the obvious protests of my blood traitor ‘brother’, are you continuing to chase after that harlot girl,” he motioned towards the girl’s bathrooms, “like a lost little puppy?”

James snarled at the youngest Black “I am not chasing after her,” he snapped “and her name is _Sydney._ ”

Regulus laughed at James “I’m aware of the _filthy_ girl’s name, I just do not deem her worthy of my saying of it.” He stated “However, to your previous comment, the contrary indicates that you’re little dates have had the whole school talking,” he said haughtily “and if they did not already think so, you are becoming somewhat,” Regulus pondered to himself “what would be a conventional way to say this,” he paused for a second or two “..somewhat of a joke.”  He then smiled at the livid James “Even your precious _mudblood_ is slipping even further away from you,” he taunted “If that’s possible.”  Regulus walked closer to James threateningly as James restrained himself from lunging again at a Slytherin, not wanting another one of Tobias’ right hooks. “If I were you,” he sneered at James “I’d save whatever little _shred_ of dignity I had left and cease running after the little piece of dirt,” he spat “because _everyone_ is laughing at you.”

With that, Regulus motioned for the two burly boys to let go of James, to which they obeyed.  James watched them go, feeling embarrassed and furious, glaring at the back of all six of the retreating boys.  He quickly downed the rest of his beer, wishing the sudden hit of alcohol would make him feel better, however the butterbeer was so light in alcohol percentage he didn’t feel a thing.  Sydney soon sat back down in the booth and let out a sigh of relief, smiling at James.

“Sorry I took so long,” she apologised “I had a problem with the enchanted towel,” she furrowed her brow “It tried to strangle me,” she explain, her expression lighted “but I’m pretty sure I fixed it.” Her face fell again. "Well, I locked it in a cubical," she waved her hand dismissively. "I'm sure it'll be fine."

James suddenly stood up, flustered and hesitant. “I’m sorry,” he apologised quickly, hardly looking at her “I’ve just remembered I’ve got a – um – detention with – Binns – professor Binns.”

Sydney opened her mouth to speak, however before she could verbalise her words James had left the booth and was out of the tavern door, therefore she was left there, her mouth gaping like a fish’s and an embarrassed look on her face.  Sydney decided to grab herself another butterbeer, whilst she was there, making the most of her Hogsmeade trip.  As she sat there drinking her beverage she came to the conclusion that James did just have a detention as he is a rather forgetful person and _did_ land himself in quite a few detentions.  Once she finished her drink she stood up happily and strolled back towards the castle.  After all, Sydney knew that James had a lot on his plate as the Quidditch try-outs were the next day.

*

Sunday soon came round, even if it did take it’s time in Sydney’s opinion.  She made sure that she was up at nine o’clock in order to allow herself some practise time before the actual tryouts, which she managed to squeeze in as her stomach took longer to digest her breakfast due to all of the back flipping it was doing. 

In the cold Quidditch pitch there were a lot of people, a few whom she recognised from her year, but some looked to be as young as in their second year.  Sydney blanched as James and Sirius stood before them, catching the crowd’s attention.

“Thank you all for coming.” James boomed so the students at the back could hear him “First of all I would like to say that I’m very excited to see what you all have to offer.” Sydney heard Sirius snort but never strayed her attention from the team captain “Secondly, I would like to make it clear right now,” he said a serious expression on his face “I have a _very_ strict routine for my members,” he looked around at the group of people, but never at Sydney. “anyone who will not be willing to be on this pitch at 6 o’clock in the morning, train hard until you drop or take on new dietary requirements needed to be on this team,” he looked over the crowd of students again “You may as well leave now.” A few students turned from the crowd and walked back to the castle grumbling, however the majority stayed.  “Good,” James smiled “now we have a dedicated bunch it’s time to see what you have to offer us!” he clapped his hands together “Let’s begin!”

Sydney saw as the first to try out were the beaters.  Sirius shoved her out of the way as he took his place, conveniently where she was standing, to launch into the air, she growled at the now hovering boy, who evidently enjoyed her reaction.  Sydney noticed that the other four applicants for the positions were Greg Dixon a sixth year, Freddie Thomas a seventh year, a girl whose name she didn’t know who looked as though she may have been in her fourth year and another girl named Jessica Louis a fifth year student.

After the beater try-outs were done, it was clear that Sirius was guaranteed a spot on the team after James had high-fived him, causing the other four contenders to become anxious as their chances on the team were quickly diminishing.

The next try-outs were for the keeper and the next for seeker.  Sydney, had turned her back from the try-outs and began to breathe heavily, she knew she couldn’t pay attention while her heart was beating so fast, she felt as though it was going to jump right out from her throat.  Once she regained her breathing she turned back to the trials.

“Next up, chasers!” boomed James.

Sydney felt her chest begin to flush and her pulse quicken, however she forced herself to calm down and stepped forward.  She suddenly heard a low growl in her ear.

“Don’t fall off your broom.” Followed by a cruel chuckle.

It was obvious Sirius had sensed her nervousness, however she wasn’t going to let it throw her off.  She pushed off of the ground and hovered around with the other contenders.  There were only two spots going as James was already a chaser on the team, therefore the competition was tight as there were five of them going for such a sought after position.  Sydney felt too nervous to even look up at the other five applicants, let alone recognise them.  She felt her slippery hands easily sliding on her broom.  She took a deep breath and prepared herself, the aim was to score as many goals as possible in the time given, with Sirius as keeper.  Sydney groaned as she knew he was going to go harder on her than any of them.  She witnessed as James threw the quaffle up to the five students, she knew there was going to be a scramble but she was the first to reach the quaffle and she flew out of the crowd of contenders, holding it under her arm and flying towards Sirius fast, dodging the other students as they tried to snatch or bat it out of her hands.  She managed to swerve another student as they all chased her, desperate to get their hands on the red ball.  When she got close to the goal posts she could see Sirius smirking at her with taunting eyes, she grabbed the red ball from under her arm and with her sweaty trembling hands, threw it towards the left goal, however Sirius was there before she could blink and caught the quaffle, and threw it back into the scramble.

Sirius sneered at Sydney “You’ve got to try harder than _that_ , _love_!” he taunted, laughing.

With a new found fury filling her, Sydney flew back towards the student who now had a hold of the quaffle she followed the boy closely until he was about the aim for the goalpost, when she snatched the quaffle from the boy and threw it into the middle goalpost as Sirius dived for the left, which the previous boy had aimed for.  Sirius scowled as Sydney smirked and flicked her hair at him, returning back to the trial.  At least nine minutes had now past and she was tied with a seventh year boy who was obviously skilled at the game.  Sydney had possession of the quaffle and could feel the time ticking away as she zigzagged away from the other students, however flying fast towards the goal keeper, Sirius.  As she was close to the goal post she remembered what she did when practising with Miles.  She threw the ball high into the air and kicked her leg around as her broom moved with her in a full pivot, she booted the quaffle and watched it as she saw Sirius dive for it and miss it by millimetres. The quaffle had flown through the right handside goal, causing Sydney to squeak with delight.

James then blew his whistle. “Times up!”

Sydney and the rest of the students flew to the ground and everyone huddled around nervously to hear the verdict.  James and Sirius had their heads together and seemed to be arguing frantically, finally Sirius threw his arms in the air and gestured for James to announce the new team.

“I’d like to say that you all performed marvellously, but as you all know there are only six spots available.” He said, he lifted his piece of parchment. “The new house beaters are, Sirius Black and Spencer Thomas!” the students clapped politely as Spencer beamed.  “The new house keeper will be Edward Port!” Sydney clapped happily as she recognised the well behaved fifth year. “The new house seeker will be Emily Dixon!”  As the students clapped Sydney could see Emily hugging her brother Greg, who didn’t make the team. “And last, but not least,” Sydney could feel her excitement growing, her nerves were still there but the excitement had overtook her, she had one, she knew she had. “The two new Gryffindor chasers are,” Sydney braced herself “Bobby Nichols,” James boomed “and Marvin Adams!”  The applause was rather deflated as it was coming from the rejects of the team.  Sydney however was in stunned silence.  “Thank you very much to everyone who tried!” James said, completely ignoring Sydney as she stared at him confused. “Enjoy your day!”

Sydney was frustrated to say the least.  James stalked past her leaving Sirius as well in the stadium, however Sydney chased after James demanding an explanation.

“James!” she cried out after him, he however ignored her “ _James_!” she repeated herself louder and with more ferocity.  James stopped, allowing Sydney to catch up to him, she noticed the stony look on her face.  “James, what the hell was that?” she asked him as he merely looked towards the stands opposite him, he said nothing again.  “Not to sound conceited but I was one of the best one out there, you _know_ that!” she exclaimed her eyes wide, James continued to stare at the stands opposite him.  Sydney turned to face the stands and saw six Slytherin’s all standing there a look of mirth on their faces.  She turned back to James confused. “Have I done something?” she questioned angrily.  He continued to ignore her protests “ _James_!” she roared.

James looked down at the confused girl with all the disdain he could muster.  “It’s _Potter_ to you.” He spat, very much aware of all the Gryffindor and Slytherin eyes on them, as was she.  “and for the record it’s _my_ team _not_  yours, I put on it who I want,” he snarled “and you didn’t make the cut.” Sydney looked up at him, a pained expression on her face. “So I’ll continue to be the captain and you can go back to being the school _slut_.” He sneered nastily.  Seeing Sydney’s hurt face, softened him slightly, however she soon returned his cruel glare.

“My apologies,” she spat “ _Potter_.”

She whirled around and stormed off to the castle in a rage, feeling humiliated and her ego bruised.

*

It was midnight.  Sydney sat in front of the fire staring into it, angrily thinking about Quidditch tryouts.  She hadn’t been able to sleep as her thoughts had been racing around her mind like – ironically – a game of Quidditch.  She sat there in her long, fluffy pyjamas; they were covered in cute little brown puppies.  Sydney knew that she had beaten the rest of the chasers in the trials and she didn’t like to sound egotistical, but she was the best chaser out on that pitch.  She sighed and flopped back into the armchair staring at the fireplace as the flames danced and licked its cover to stop the flames burning the mantelpiece above.  Her feet were only about a metre away from the fire and it caused her to kick off her slippers and allow the warmth to reach her toes.  Her eyes were growing heavy and she allowed them to close however her brain would not let her sleep.  James had just snapped, the day before he didn’t care that everyone deemed her to be a ‘slut’ and then suddenly it was as though he was disgusted by her. 

“I told him to put you on the team.” Her train of thought was interrupted.

She snapped her head around to see Sirius’ silhouette standing on the stairway in the blackness looking into the fire, same as she was.

“What?” she asked, wary of his genuine attitude.  There was something in his voice she couldn’t place.

He tore his eyes away from the fire to look directly into her eyes.  His eyes were a smouldering grey colour, she had never noticed before.

“James,” Sirius clarified “I told him today that he should put you on the team.”

Sydney was taken aback. “ _Why_?”

Sirius rolled his eyes “You were the best.” He explained shrugging his shoulders, he walked towards her and sat on the sofa next to her chair and he stretched out.  “Even though we’re not exactly best friends,” he said, a smirked evident on his face, it was lit up from the glow of the fireplace, however the rest of him remained in the darkness.  “We need you on the team.” He admitted. “But, as James made perfectly clear to me _and_ you,” he nodded “It is _his_ team,” Sydney suddenly realised that he was topless, his muscles rippled as he moved on the sofa and Sydney suddenly felt herself looking away, embarrassed.  “It’s not like I’m bothered anyway,” said Sirius defensively “I’m happy we don’t have your slutty antics messing up our Quidditch matches.”  Sirius smirked tauntingly. “I personally wouldn’t be able to keep my hands of you if you wore one of those little skirts.” The hostility was suddenly back in the room as Sydney stood up.

“You really are a complete _arse_.” She said her eyes narrowed as she saw the humour on his face.

Sirius looked her up and down and then eventually met her eyes and raised an eyebrow.  Sydney had a twisted look of disgust on her face as he scrutinised her.  She put her slippers back on and turned on her heel marching towards the stairwell.

“Puppies?” she heard from behind her.  She turned back to face Sirius, her expression angry and confused.

“What?” she snapped.

Sirius gestured towards her pyjamas, Sydney looked down and her brow furrowed, then she suddenly realised.

“They’re comfy.” She said defensively, her arms folded.

Sirius chuckled. “Comfy’s not exactly your look love.  People expect a bit more leg from you.” He said winking.

She advanced on him and pulled her wand from the back of her trousers and jabbed the tip of it into his chest angrily.  “One,” she hissed “You need to learn I don’t care what you think,” she could see him smirking happily, which only fuelled her rage.  She closed the gap between them, which caused Sirius’ snigger to falter and for his breath to catch in his throat “and _two_ if you people want a slut,” she said, her eyes wild, her breathing ragged “I’ll give you a _slut._ ” She spat.


	4. Chapter 4

Sydney awoke the next morning a vengeance in her heart, as the words of James still stung from yesterday, she was going to give the school what they wanted, she was going to show them what a _real_ slut looked like.

As she walked down the girls’ staircase she could feel her heart pounding, she paused for a second and debated whether she should just go upstairs and change her outfit but her pride willed her on.  Sydney held her breath as she came close to the door that led to the common room where she knew all of her peers were, she thought about the looks on their face if she walked in looking the way she did.  She smirked, fluffed her hair and opened the door.

Her smirk grew as she literally strutted into the common room her arms swinging, her fingertips brushing against her thighs as put one foot in front of the other, swinging her hips.  She noticed girls scowling and glaring at her as she winked at a gawking fifth year boy as she passed by.  She exited through the portrait door and heard the fat lady gasp in disapproval, a surge of adrenaline and excitement hit Sydney, she couldn’t wait to get into the great hall.  She made her way down the corridor and down the moving staircase.  She’d only made a few alterations to her uniform, she’d put on her first year grey skirt and made it rather short and wore her long sleeved school blouse, she’d rolled up the sleeves half way up her forearm and had it unbuttoned far enough to see her heaving cleavage, she had also pulled out a pair of grey over-the-knee socks and she had decided to wear her black pump heels.  Her makeup and hair was fairly natural, she had enchanted her lips to be tinted a light red and her hair was naturally curly, however she had just ruffled it up to make it look a little messy.

As she entered the Great hall she could feel everyone staring at her, she swaggered down the aisle towards the Gryffindor table, she glanced around her and caught the eye of a fifth year Ravenclaw.  Sydney send a kiss his way, which made the boy grin and his friends around him congratulate him, smacking him on the back. The girls in the hall scoffed and looked disgusted at her.  She looked back at the Gryffindor table and smirked as she saw all four marauders sitting there looking at her, all of their jaws hitting the floor.  She walked over to the gang of boys, leant on the table right next to James and Sirius and smirked.

“I hope there’s no hard feelings Potter?” she asked alluringly as he just stared at her, his mouth wide open. “Great.” She said grinning. 

She turned to Sirius who also had his mouth agape looking her up and down in astonishment, she crooked her head to the side and smirked, catching him staring.  She raised an eyebrow at him and stole a piece of bacon off of his plate “What’s wrong, Black?” Sydney said toying with him “Don’t you want to _play_?” she asked, reiterating their conversation from a few weeks ago. 

Sydney seductively bit into the bacon, making an ‘mmm’ noise while smiling at him coyly and then gave him a wink, to which he opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish.  She relished in the fact that she could have such an affect over the boys of Hogwarts just by showing a bit of flesh.  As she walked away from the boys and took a seat on her own, she could see a lot of boys staring at her, one that tickled Sydney the most was a boy on the Hufflepuff table opposite her who was gawking at her in all of her splendour while his girlfriend, a girl who couldn’t have been older than fourteen, was heatedly yelling at him for staring at ‘the slut’.  She’d never been one for breaking up or causing a riff in relationships, that was never her style, but desperate times called for desperate measures.  She winked at the gawking onlooker, whose eyes at that moment glazed over and he adopted a dopey grin on his face, his girlfriend however, did not take to it so positively as she looked over to Sydney with a look of pure thunder on her face, however she did not dare confront the sixth year.

The day went by rather smoothly as Sydney wished, apart from the scolding from professor McGonagall, to which she was forced to promise that she would wear her normal uniform the next day, to her and the male population of Hogwarts’ great disappointment, however she was merely thankful that the teacher had decided not to ban her from Hogsmeade or give her a month’s worth of detentions.  The majority of the school had somehow gotten used to Sydney’s provocative dress sense during the day, however that didn’t stop all of the glares and scowls from the girls and the ogling stares from the boys. 

One glare she found that she couldn’t ignore was from the blonde brigade that was Samantha Lawrence, Janice Fowler and Farrah Bishop.  She could see the girls surrounded by male ‘heartthrobs’ who were all desperate for their attention, but Sydney knew that these girls had eyes for only the marauder boys.  Sydney strutted over to the girls and their followers and turned to the most good-looking of their admirers, she dipped her index finger in Farrah’s whip cream pudding and sucked on it smiling coyly at him as he stared dreamily at her.  Sydney heard Farrah let out a gasp of disgust, to which she turned to the girl and sucked on her finger once more.  All of the girls gave her a look of pure repugnance, stood up and walked out of the Great Hall, the followers not far behind.  Sydney laughed at the annoyed girls and scooped up a bit more of the otherwise untouched pudding. 

“What are you doing?” came a low, throaty voice from behind her, causing Sydney to jump and drop the pudding onto the table.

Sydney turned around to see Sirius Black standing there, looking at her with confusion etched cross his face.  She grinned and opened her eyes wide.  “Whatever do you mean?” she asked innocently, sucking the pudding off her finger again.

“Don’t play coy with me,” he said rolling his eyes and huffing “now we both know that this isn’t you.” He gestured towards her attire “So why are you doing this?”

She looked up at him through her lashes, watching his stormy grey eyes search her own, she didn’t know why he was curious or for that matter why he cared, but in that same moment neither did she.  She smirked mischievously, an impish look glistening in her powder blue eyes.  She immediately sized him up and bit her full, crimson coloured lips and closed the gap between the both of them and stood on her tip toes.   Sirius looked just as shocked as she felt by her own actions, but of course, the niggling in her stomach was not enough to stop her, she took a deep breath in and teasingly allowed her chest to brush against his stone like abs, her lips mere inches away from his.  She chuckled; she didn’t know what she found funnier, her bold actions or his complete lack of understanding and perception.  Sirius was now breathing raggedly compared to Sydney’s collected breathing pattern, his eyes were wide and glued to Sydney’s plump lips.  Sydney smiled seductively and licked her lips, watching his eyes follow her tongue.  She inched closer to his lips and then traced his skin up to his ear.

“Why the _hell_ not.” She whispered.

She left him standing in the middle of the Great Hall looking as if she had slapped him around the face.  Sydney stalked off out of the room and rounded the corner unable to get the obnoxious grin off of her face, she laughed to herself once more as she pictured his gormless face, completely stunned and taken aback.  As she climbed the stairs she realised that the stairs had moved while she was on them and had taken her to the third floor, she groaned inwardly and continued to walk as she needed to find a more certain way back down.  She left the staircase and rounded another corner facing an unfamiliar hallway, she carried on down the hallway, curiously exploring this alien territory.

“Sydney!” she heard a recognisable voice.

Sydney whirled around, startled to hear the voice in the deserted corridor.  She saw Miles Davies staggering towards her, his hair messed up and his eyes wild.  As he got closer to her she began to smell a very distinctive, strong, toxic smell.

“Miles?” she said in uncertainty “What are you doing here?” she asked, he stumbled slightly and grinned at her “Are you drunk?” she asked, her eyes widening.

“You’re telling me,” he slurred “that a naughty girl, such as yourself,” he gestured drunkenly towards her “has never been drunk?” he laughed and ran a hand through his hair, messing up his blonde locks even more “Now that I cannot believe.”

Sydney laughed at him awkwardly, feeling his stare on her body.  She uneasily fastened the undone buttons on her top, covering her chest. “Not in school hours.”  She hesitated “Maybe you should go to bed?” she suggested in an attempt at being helpful.

Miles merely stared at Sydney for a few seconds before breaking out into a smug smirk, one that Sydney didn’t deem to be a good type of ‘friendly’.  “I knew it,” he said, once again looking her up and down “I knew it.”

He forced her up against the stone wall of the castle and crushed his lips on top of hers.  His breath was a toxic taste of Firewhisky, a taste she was not ready to have again anytime soon, he however shoved his tongue into her mouth and tangled his hand into her hair, roughly pulling on it causing her to cry out in pain, which apparently Miles had chosen to ignore.  Sydney managed to turn her head to the side, refusing him any access to kiss her.

“Miles get off me!” she yelled at him angrily, however the lustful boy was unresponsive to her cries.

He vigorously began to kiss and bite her neck, which, in his drunken state was actually causing her eyes to water.  She attempted to fend him off however before she could hit him he seemed to accidentally push her to the floor, him falling along with her, his powerful hand landing weightily on her inner thigh and she felt his hand travel up under her skirt.  Sydney gasped in pain and she felt as though she had lost her voice, she wanted to cry out for help but nothing would come out, she felt as though she was underwater and the pressure was crushing her and her lungs.  She was unable to get her flailing limbs to hit him hard as his enormous body was weighing her down.  Miles slammed his clumsy hand against her chest in an attempt to feel under her blouse, realising his drunken mistake he felt for the fold of her school shirt and ripped it so the top half of the buttons flew off. 

Suddenly, Miles faltered and sloppily moved in his intoxicated condition.  This was Sydney’s window, her only window.  She managed to free her arm from his hold and punched him in the face.  She stood up quickly, desperately clutching her blouse together with her now swollen fist and she ran, tears welling up in her eyes, threatening to spill over.  She didn’t even look at the boy who was rolling on the floor clutching his face.  Her was makeup smudged from the struggle and her heart felt like it was about to leap out of her throat, however she continued to run fast.  She managed to find her way back to the staircase, and began to make her way to the Gryffindor tower.  Her breaths were still shallow and ragged and the tears filling her eyes were now spilling over, however she wiped away the tears furiously.

“Sydney?”

Sydney was startled by the voice and spun around to face the last people she wanted to see.  James Potter and Remus Lupin stood there in the corridor next to their common room, all looking rather concerned.

“Remus, Hi!” she croaked with a smile, in an attempt to be cheery, however her voice betrayed her and broke.

She noticed that James had begun to look at her fist frantically clutching at her blouse in an attempt to keep it closed.  He began to open his mouth to speak but that was all she needed to cause her to run again.  These were the last people she wanted to confide in, much less cry in front of.

She now knew going to her dormitory was out of the question, she didn’t know where she was going, but her legs continued to move until she was at the tip top of the castle.  She found herself in the Astronomy tower standing at the ledge looking down onto the grounds as her tears stained her face with black streaks.  She never was pretty when she cried and as she was near to sobbing, today was no different.  She was angrily reliving the night, thinking about what she should have done differently, told Miles straightaway to go back to his dormitory, not dressed like a streetwalker, found her power and voice sooner when she was attacked.  She allowed herself to fall onto the floor, sobbing silently as she pulled the sleeves down on her shirt, elongated her skirt as much as possible and took off the teasing socks.  She raised her hand to cover her face, while the other clutched at her still-beating – to Sydney’s disappointment – heart while also covering up her heaving bosom with her shirt.  Her breathing was erratic and shallow as her heartbeat began to race, being in the current situation she became extremely aware of its presence.

She felt someone standing behind her.  Immediately she found her feet and wiped her eyes, smudging her eye makeup even more, causing her to groan in frustration.  She shuffled her feet on the stone floor, she had forgotten how cold the castle became at night, she looked down at her feet which were frozen and half curled.  She heard footsteps coming closer to her, however she remained facing the grounds, not wishing to face the astronomy tower’s guest.  She bent down and picked up her socks and wringed them in her hands.  She saw someone stand beside her and look up into the sky.

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” the person said looking up into the stars.  Sydney continued to refuse to look at the intruder, but she could tell it was a girl’s voice and in the corner of her eye she could see the girl shaking her red hair.

“I suppose,” Sydney mused as she looked into the night sky with glassy eyes “I hadn’t really noticed.” 

She noticed the girl look down to Sydney’s feet, which Sydney took as a chance to glance at the girl.  Her stomach felt at ease.  Lily Evans stood next to her in what Sydney could only guess was an act of compassion.  Sydney looked back to the grounds once more, her face filled with anguish and worry.

“Aren’t your feet cold?” asked Lily, concerned.  “You know you could probably get pneumonia that way.” She stated a-matter-of-factly.

Sydney hadn’t even realised that she'd lost her shoes in all the commotion.

“I guess they are a little.” She said looking down at her feet and wiggling her toes, restraining herself from making a smart-arse response to Lily’s last comment.

She sat back down onto the cold floor and put her socks back on, but only rolled them up so they were covering her ankles.  She looked like a right idiot.  She felt Lily sit down beside her and shuffle around slightly.  Sydney reckoned it was to do with the freezing stone floor.

“Don’t you have any shoes?” Lily questioned an incredulous tone in her voice.

Sydney blushed and cleared her throat. “No.” she said bluntly.

“Why not?”

Sydney furrowed her brow in embarrassment and she pursed her lips.  “I -,” she said faltered “I lost them.”

“Oh,” said Lily, raising her eyebrows.  She nodded and rubbed her arms.  “I guess we’d better get you back to the dorms then,” she said, taking off her cloak “It’s past curfew.” She explained handing it to Sydney.

Sydney looked at Lily fully for the first time catching her eye.  She embarrassedly turned away, realising she must have seen her red eyes and mascara covered face, but she took the cloak and wrapped it around herself happily.  Without her heels now on she was much shorter than Lily and of course Lily seemed much more mature and older than her.  Sydney followed the prefect back towards the Gryffindor tower, keeping in silence until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady when Lily spun around, a torn look on her face.

“I don’t know exactly what’s happened, Sydney,” she said, pausing as if she didn’t know whether or not to continue, but she did anyway. “and I understand that this is none of my business,” she breathed deeply “But I think I have a good idea of what has happened tonight,” Sydney’s eyes fell to the floor “I spoke with Potter,”  Sydney looked up with a dark look on her face and Lily seemed to understand to say no more on that front “Well anyway, Potter and I found a drunk Hufflepuff boy roaming the halls sporting a rather bad bruise on his face,” Sydney’s breaths had become shallow once more “It took both me and Potter at least half an hour to get him back to his common room and for him to remember the password,” she reminisced.  Her expression then turned stony again. “But if it is what I think,” she continued “Sydney I implore you to go to professor Dumbledore about this, if not professor McGongall!”

Sydney didn’t want to go to the teachers about it, all she wanted was to forget about the events that had occurred that night and go back to normal.  Whatever normal was anyway.  Sydney muttered the password and walked through the portrait door with Lily at her heels, but before she made her way up the staircase she turned to Lily and smiled kindly.

“Thank you Lily, I really do appreciate you helping me,” she said handing her back her cloak “but you’re right,” she added, her expression becoming full of anguish. “It really is _none_ of your business.”

She walked up to her dormitory, feeling guilty for shoving Lily’s kindness back into her face, but she felt like she just couldn’t tell anyone, it was too humiliating, it would have made it too real.  She shut her door quietly as to not wake the wolves in her room, she clambered into her four poster bed and shut her eyes fiercely to prevent even more tears from spilling from her watery eyes.

*-*-*-*-* 

 

The next day things went pretty much back to normal, people were still talking about Sydney’s theatrics from the day before, but people _always_ talked about her, so for Sydney it all _felt_ normal.  There was only one problem that was causing her to dread going to class.  It was Tuesday, she’d have to face the entire marauder pack today in Care of Magical Creatures.  She groaned as she chewed on the last morsel of her pancakes and then headed to her Care of Magical Creatures class on the second floor of the castle.  She pushed her crumb-filled plate away from her and headed towards her class with professor Kettleburn.  As she arrived she opened the heavy door, hearing it creak, she tip toed in knowing she was early.  It was common knowledge throughout Hogwarts that professor Kettleburn didn’t like to be disturbed from his ‘pre-class nap’ in his office next to the classroom which her fellow Gryffindor, Mary McDonald, had the misfortune of finding out in their third year.  Sydney sat in her usual seat and noticed the cage of poisonous snails in the corner of the room, they looked like large African snails, however she noticed that their shells had a green glint to them as if the shells were just one, curved, hollow scale on the backs of the ginormous snails. 

She slowly unpacked her required text book ‘ _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them By Newt Scamander_ ’ and had stumbled upon the Chimaera which was on the page directly after the Manticore.  It was only a bit of light reading, the more dangerous magical creatures interested her.  She had never wanted to learn about docile creatures such as unicorns, crups or kneazles, however to her dismay she had known that they’d be learning about unicorns sometime soon, the subject had not yet arisen in the class and it was due time, they’d learnt about manticores, nifflers, flobberworms and Salamanders so far this term, and crups and kneazles had both come up last year, so unicorns were definitely on their way, however Sydney had hoped that soon they would learn about the extremely dangerous and rare chimera.  The classroom door abruptley swung open and hit the wall behind it causing Sydney to wince and purse her lips, knowing that the deafening crash would have awoken their eccentric teacher.  Sydney swirled her head around with her eyes narrowed, her hair landing in her eyes for a split second then falling back out, a tint of redness found its way to the tip of her cheeks when she saw who had come through however she pretended not to notice it and then swung her head back around and faced the front of the class, her scowl still present.

“Hello Maura,” came Sirius Black’s familiar goading voice “I see we’ve not gone for the fishnet tights today.”

“What a _keen_ observation,” she commented wryly “however I seemed to notice that you were not one to object.”

“Well when I told you I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off a girl in a short skirt,” Sirius smirked “I didn’t think you’d go slip one on and throw yourself at me.”

Sydney realised he was more fun to taunt when he was in a bad mood and wasn’t in the mood to flirt.

She huffed and crossed her arms facing the front of the classroom.

She had noticed that Peter hadn’t said a word, not that he normally did to her anyway, however she observed that he had become bright pink at the sight of her and did not even turned around in his seat like Sirius had to face Sydney.

“Don’t worry, love, the desperation made it sexier.” Sirius said winking.

Sydney growled and angrily screwed up a piece of paper from her notepad and threw it right into the conceited boy’s grinning face, which subsequently turned into a surprised frown.

“I’ve told you, _stop_ calling me ‘love’.” She snarled at him before flopping back into her old, wooden chair, placing her nose firmly back into her textbook.

The boys had clearly not spoken to each other about the events that had occurred the night before and, like Sydney, had decided to ignore it.  She was actually thankful that Sirius was being an arsehole, it made everything that happened just seem like a bad dream, nothing more.

“How about muffin cheeks?”

Maybe she wasn’t thankful.  She could actually do without his existence really.

“Chunky Bunny?”

Sydney scowled at him, closing her book and placing it on her desk.

“Doodle Bug Dumpling?”

She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing.

“Pet?”

Sydney snapped her eyes open to see Sirius smirking amusedly at her.  Her heart fell back out of her throat as she soon realised that Sirius knew nothing, however she wasn’t too sure whether he had seen the look of horror on her face but she pretended that she had not made such a face.

“I think we have a winner.” Said Sirius, continuing to taunt her, he was however, to Sydney’s delight, cut short by a booming voice that had just arrived in the room.

“I’ve made it perfectly clear, time and time again!” came the irate voice of professor Kettleburn, their peculiar Care of Magical Creatures teacher. “Being late I will tolerate!” Sydney sniggered as the man in blue and silver wizarding dress robes and a long hat unintentionally rhymed his sentence. “But earliness is something that I will not accept!” Sydney had always found his methods rather strange “You!” he extended his bony finger towards Sirius. “You!” he then pointed at Peter who seemed extremely uncomfortable.  Sydney perhaps wondered if he was going to soil himself. “And you!” He pointed directly at Sydney who gaped angrily. “Detention tonight!” he stormed back into his office and slammed the door behind him.  From the other room the professor’s angry voice could still be heard as he ranted to himself.  “Teenagers have no manners these days! ... If it were back in my day …”

The three of the students sat in silence, rather astounded at the scene that had just unfolded in front of them, when all of a sudden two more boys stumbled into the room, laughing.

“My good Godric Padfoot, Wormtail, why on earth would you even consider coming here early?” James laughed as the rest of the students began to file into the room. “You know Kettleburn is barmy about that sort of th--” James broke off as he saw Sydney sitting behind the deemed ‘most popular boy in school’ “Uh,” James immediately sobered when his eyes locked with Sydney’s, Sydney could sense Remus was suddenly intrigued by a loose piece of stone on the ground, however she never broke her stare from James, who blushed and looked away.  He silently took his seat next to his best friend, while Remus did the same in the seat next to him.

_Awkward._

That would have been a major understatement of how the lesson so far, but none the less it was unequivocally, horribly awkward.  Even Sirius Black the witless wonder sussed something in the air wasn’t quite right and for once it wasn’t a smell radiating from Peter’s behind.

At the front of the room professor Kettleburn spoke excitedly about the underwater demon the ‘Kelpie’ whilst dancing in front of the projection on the wall.  Sydney had been trying to keep her focus to the front of the room however her attention got lost in between as she noticed that in front of her Sirius and James were whispering not so subtly and not so quietly.

“What the hell was that all about?” hissed Sirius

“What are you talking about?” James retorted, doodling on a piece of paper.

“Back there,” He ran a hand through his hair a smiled his ‘drop-dead-gorgeous’ smile at a couple of Hufflepuffs who giggled profusely. “You, Remmy and Maura?” Sirius observed “A tad uncomfortable, no?”

“It’s just because,” James paused, obviously trying to think up an excuse.  Sydney knew that the boys hadn’t spoken about the state they’d found her in, maybe they were frightened of what they might uncover, they may be uncomfortable with the display of emotions that she had shown, or perhaps they just didn’t care.  Sydney kind of wished it was the latter. “Of the Quidditch thing,” James lied badly. “It’s still all a bit uncomfortable.”  James began to fold the piece of paper in his hand and silently cast a charm over it.  Sydney suddenly saw a little paper bird emerge from James’ grasp and flitter over towards the scribbling redhead at the front of the classroom, who, upon receiving it, turned to face James, her cheeks emblazoned and a scowl apparent on her angry face.

Sirius narrowed his eyes at his supposed ‘best mate’ and tapped his fingers on the table continuously.  James however continued to ignore the irritated boy and again began doodling, yet Sydney could not.  She kicked the back of Sirius’ chair violently, causing him to quickly turn around and throw his quill at her, glowering.

Soon after the lesson had ended Sydney scooped up her textbook and stashed Sirius’ quill at the bottom of her bag.  He wasn’t get that back any time soon.  She headed towards the dungeons in order to proceed to her potions class.

*-*-*-*-* 

As she entered the classroom, she found only one spot left and didn’t particularly wish to sit there, however she trudged over to the free seat and moved it slightly so she could sit down.

“Mind if I sit here?” she asked, not sure that she could face spending an entire hour next to James.

Lily Evans smiled kindly at her “Of course!” she gestured for Sydney to sit down.

Sydney sat in the seat and smiled awkwardly in thanks to the red head.  She prayed for Lily not to pry about the events of the previous night, but she knew that the redhead just couldn’t help herself.

Half way through the lesson as they were stirring their Elixir to Induce Euphoria Lily looks as if she were about to burst.

“Look, Sydney,” Lily said with a pained expression on her pretty face.  Sydney smiled grimly, strangely proud that Lily had held out so long. “I understand that you think this is none of my business and I would hate to cause you distress, but you need to clarify what happened last night.”  Sydney didn’t look up from stirring the potion.

“Well,” she said carefully. “What do you think happened?”

“Well, I—I’m not exactly sure – Add the peppermint sprig.”

“What?” Sydney snapped her eyes up to look at Lily “There’s nothing about a peppermint sprig in here.” She objected.

“Just trust me,” Lily said with a wave on her had as to not steer from the conversation. “But I know something terrible happened to you!” she hissed “You _need_ to tell someone.”

For the second time that day Sydney closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, sighing.  Lily was being very persistent with this, but Sydney knew she only had her best intentions at heart.

“Look,” she said, slightly irritated “too many people already know that something happened,” she said in a low voice, she turned her head to face the marauders, James’ sopophorous bean had rolled from his table and he was now on the floor attempting to retrieve it, she then turned her head back to her own potion and watched as it simmered. “I’d rather just forget about it.” She said in a stony voice.

Lily nodded in an annoyingly ‘all-knowing’ way, which almost reminded her of Dumbledore. “Well,” Lily said giving her a sad smile “when you’re ready to talk I’ll be ready to lend an ear.”

*-*-*-*-* 

Sydney had free periods until after lunchtime therefore decided to take a shower in her dorm; that had always calmed and soothed her.  She muttered the password to the Fat Lady and then made her way up to her dormitory.  As she entered her dorm she realised that all the beds were empty apart from one.  Amelia Aarons, the busty brunette of their year had her curtain drawn around her four poster bed, she heard her breathe lightly and assumed that she must have over slept, but there was no way in hell she was waking one of the Farrah minions.  Sydney tip-toed over to her bed and quickly changed out of her clothes and into her bathrobe, putting her clothes on her bed, she then walked into the bathroom and closed the door quietly in order not to awake the sleeping lion.  Sydney turned the cold water on in the shower and then she turned the hot tap in order to even out the temperature.  The hot tap seemed to be stuck and was hard to twist.  Her face began to grew pink with the strain of turning the knob, she furiously began to tug and pull in order to make the hot water flow out.  Suddenly her furious attempts worked only a little too well as she pulled the handle clean off of the shower tap causing her to fall back into the sink and fall to the floor as she cried out in pain.  She looked at the handle in her hand and gripped it tightly, angrily screwing up her face in anger and pain then swiftly turned around and threw the knob against what she thought was a wall however as she let go of the knob she realised it was heading for the large mirror across the bathroom.  As the mirror shattered to the floor, she bought the grey sleeve of her shower robe up to cover her face in order to muffle her cries, her face drenched with tears sliding frantically down her cheeks.  She had a feeling that her little breakdown wasn’t to do with the mirror or the shower knob at all.

Sydney suddenly heard the bathroom door click open, she turned her head away wiping her eyes for what felt like the millionth time this week, before Amelia could see her current state and run to tell Farrah and the rest of the school, however she was surprise at what she heard.

“Amelia, are you okay?” a voice asked.  A male voice.  A horribly familiar male voice.

Sydney slowly turned her head before seeing the one person who would cause her to hug Amelia if it were her here instead of him.

“Oh, sorry.” Said Sirius, in just his jeans with his black t-shirt hung loosely in his hand.  His eyes however fell to Sydney’s now exposed thigh which was covered in a ugly black and blue, hand shaped bruise thanks to Miles Davies.

“Uhh,” Sirius paused and found himself also looking at the gap in her bathrobe where the top of her chest was exposed where there were four horizontal, red scratch marks across it, again thanks to Miles. “Sorry.” He said as she quickly covered up both her leg and her chest, looking away from him, pretending he wasn’t even there, nor were the cuts and bruises.  She heard the bathroom door click closed and she allowed herself to feel overcome by her emotions and just cry.

 *-*-*-*-* 

Sirius sat in the great hall lost in his thoughts mainly about how Amelia Aaron’s busty chest was more than a handful per breast and how Kennedy Peters’ thighs were slender and tight and teasing.  He couldn’t help but also think about Lisa Ryan’s tiny stomach and how he’d trailed kisses all along it, Sarah Oslo’s perfect neck that he nibbled and sucked to his heart’s content, Helen Smith’s full luscious lips that he kissed and bit until they were sore, Christy Gale’s bare womanly hips and how he traced them with his fingers and Georgia Steven’s … well let’s just say Georgia Stevens was a little bit more than rambunctious in the bed.

He looked at his friends who were currently snacking and fighting over the chocolate that Remus had stashed in his bag.  James was presently lying on the table attempting to pry the chocolate from Remus Lupin who was getting rather close to the full moon and had become rather protective over his milky chocolate.

There was just one problem, among the many girls he was thinking of there was one up there that didn’t belong, mainly because of what he had just witnessed, he didn’t want to tell the others for reasons he didn’t know but there was a feeling in the pit of his stomach that told him something was wrong.  Sydney Maura’s pained face flashed in his mind, the bruises and the scratches, she had attempted to hide it from him, but it was obvious to the both of them that he’d seen it all.  He didn’t want to ask himself why they were there or how they got there, he supposed he just didn’t want to be stuck with the burden of knowing.  He shook her face from his mind and decided to join the fight in claiming his friend’s chocolate.

Sydney walked towards the Library, where she knew she’d find Lily Evans in a free period.  She entered the library and peeked around the door of the silent room, she couldn’t see the majority of the room, due to the large bookshelves shrouding the dark and dank room.  She shivered as she stepped in; this place always gave her gave her the creeps.  It was normally filled with Ravenclaws huddling in small groups, a few Slytherins clustering together in the dusty area and the occasional Lily Evans.  As she walked across the floor, she gained a few stares as she was not a regular, also a few scorned looks from a few members of the female population of the gloomy room.  She searched the room and soon found herself in the restricted section walking alongside the bookstands; somehow the room had become even more eerie.  She found her hands running over the dusty books reading the titles on the binds.

“Autopsies of the Unexplained … Black Magik … Secrets of the Darkest Arts … Famous Fire-Eaters …” she murmured, crooking her head intrigued.

She was about to reach for Secrets of the Darkest Arts when a voice pulled her out of her interest.

“Sydney?”

Sydney turned around to find Lily looking at her with an eyebrows raised.  Sydney smiled and walked over to the lonely table which Lily was occupying.  She sat down opposite the redhead, her eyes glanced down to her book hesitantly.

“What are you reading?” Sydney asked curiously.

Lily shrugged and closed the heavy book, the front read _Book of Spells_. “Nothing, just brushing up on my spells.”  Lily looking up at Sydney from her book. “What are you doing here?”

Sydney paused for a moment, sighed and then waved her hand in the air. “Getting away from the angry mobs,” she lied “the usual.”

Lily raised her brow sceptically and leaned forward, her arms resting on the table.  “You’re a terrible liar you know.”

Sydney stared at Lily, determined to keep her confidence in the face of the Gryffindor prefect.  Suddenly it wavered and then Sydney gave in altogether.  She sighed and flopped her arms down onto the table, mirroring Lily, however Sydney’s face was one of defeat.  She seemed to struggle with an internal battle inside her head.

“Look,” Sydney said in agitation “I got away didn’t I?” she said, although she was not annoyed with Lily, but herself. “It shouldn’t have made me so upset.”

Lily curved her neck at Sydney curiously, but allowed her to continue.

“I shouldn’t have allowed Black to see me like that either --” her rant was cut short by Lily’s voice.

“Like what?” Lily asked, furrowing her brow in concern.

Sydney suddenly blushed, momentarily forgetting Lily’s presence, she shook her head. “Never mind.” She muttered, before quickly falling into silence.

“Whatever Davies did to you,” Lily noticed Sydney’s wince at the mention of his name. “ Or tried to do, you shouldn’t have to bottle it up.”  Lily looked at Sydney desperately. “If you don’t want to tell a teacher, that’s fine,” she begged “But at least tell me, from what I can tell, I seem to be the only friend you have.”

Sydney’s eyes snapped to Lily’s at the word ‘friend’. “Why do you even care?” Sydney asked, in genuine curiosity.

“Believe it or not Sydney,” Lily said with a sad smile on her face. “I know all too well what it’s like to be an outcast,” she pursed her lips. “And as much as you’d love for people to believe you’re the bitch that you pretend to be, I see different.” She mused for a second. “I like you.”

Sydney looked at Lily, finding it hard to not trust her, her green eyes were imploring Sydney to divulge her in her darkest secret and she could help not but obey.

 *-*-*-*-* 

That evening Sydney opened the door to professor Kettleburn’s office and peered inside to find the teacher sitting behind his desk awaiting the students for detention.

“Miss Maura!” she said cheerfully “What do I owe the pleasure?”

Okay, so maybe he wasn’t waiting for them.

“Detention, sir?” Sydney reminded him, worrying a little for his mental health.

“Oh jolly yes!” he exclaimed. “Take a seat dear girl and I will be back with the textbooks.”

As Sydney took a seat in the room she, found herself looking at the clock.  It was ten past seven before Peter and Sirius came charging through the door. Peter had a worried look on his face as if Sirius was about to bite him if he spoke. As Sydney looked to Sirius, she noticed the large gash that had formed on his swollen bottom lip, which he was tending to with what seemed to be a towel with ice wrapped inside, he also seemed to have acquired a black eye.  Sydney snorted and rolled her eyes while flicking her wand aimlessly as the boys took their seats.

“Someone finally teach you a lesson then, eh Black?” she asked cockily taunting him.  She merely got a horrid glare from the broody boy.  “Who was it then?” she asked, swinging on the hind legs of her chair “I need to know who to send my thanks to.”  She heard Sirius darkly mutter something incomprehensible.  She smirked devilishly. “Isn’t it dangerous to use all of one’s vocabulary in one sentence?” she mocked him.

She was unsure about why she was being so cruel, but all she knew was that she wanted for things to go back to normal; she wanted to act like nothing had happened.

“You know what?” Sirius bellowed, suddenly standing up out of his chair, glowering venomously at Sydney.

“Go ahead,” Sydney said, her smirk growing. “shock me,” she winked “say something intelligent.”

Sirius however said nothing he merely flipped his wand at Sydney’s chair and allowed her to topple backwards onto the cold floor.  He stood over the shocked looking Sydney and smirked.

“My arse is numb.” Sydney commented, scowling.

“How interesting,” Sirius said dryly. “Maybe I should give it a nibble, see if that wakes it up.” he said, his unwavering smirk irritating Sydney.  She really wanted to wipe the smug look off of his face.

“Anteoculatia!” she said quickly snatching her wand from her pocket and pointing it at Sirius’ head.

 *-*-*-*-* 

“Miss Maura,” said professor Kettleburn as he completed the counter-curse for the hex she had placed on Sirius “I’m very disappointed.” He said putting his wand in his robes as Sirius’ antlers shrunk back into his head. “I thought you were one of the few pupils who were above hexing other students.”  He shook his head at the nervously shifting Sydney. “Twenty points from Gryffindor!”

As they exited the professor’s study, Sirius rounded on Sydney and narrowed his eyes, pushing her hard against the stone wall.

“Go ahead, Peter,” Sirius said in a malicious voice “I need to spend some _quality_ time with Maura here.”

Peter quickly scurried off without needing to be told twice.

_'Coward'_ She thought to herself.

Sydney glared right back at Sirius who had her pinned against the wall by her shoulders.

“Something I can help you with Bambi?” Sydney’s smirk turned into a face of delighted amusement.

“What,” he spat, she could feel his hot breath on her face. “is your problem?”

“I think you know the answer to that.” Sydney commented, rolling her eyes.

Sirius’ face suddenly turned into a nasty grin. “Oh, I see,” he said licking his lips “Now that you threw Davies off the other night,” at his name Sydney’s expression fell dark and pained. “I suppose you think you’re a big, tough girl now!”

Sydney’s eyes fluttered closed for a second, concentrating on regaining her breath before she snapped them open again and shook her head.  “I don’t know what--”

“You know _exactly_ what I’m talking about.” Sirius spat, his eyes wild as he pushed her further into the wall with a hand firmly placed on her collar bone, he allowed his hand to travel down the length of her, as he reached her thigh, Sydney’s breathing hitched, her stomach churning as she thought the worst.  Sirius suddenly took his thumb and dug it into the bruise that Miles had given her, causing Sydney to arch in agony, biting her lip as the hot pain had made her legs weak.  She refused to cry again in front of Sirius Black.  She couldn’t look at him and she wouldn’t, but she knew that his face was as cruel as before, he had no sympathy, regret or guilt towards her.  “I know he did this,” he dug his thumb further into the wound, causing Sydney to lose face and cry out.  Sirius sneered at the pained girl and suddenly stepped away from her, allowing her knees to give way and for Sydney to crash to the ground, feeling a wave of heat sweep over her. “Go and tell a professor,” he said, malice in his strong voice “before it happens to someone who _doesn’t_ deserve it.”

She felt hot tears escape and trail down her cold face.  She didn’t want to feel sorry for herself, however she couldn’t help it, the physical and emotional strain that the day had on her made her feel light headed and ill, her eyes grew heavy through the tears and allowed herself to lay flat on the ground, clutching her hand to her chest, feeling as though she couldn’t breathe.  Through bleary eyes she saw a large figure walk towards her however she just couldn’t help but slip into unconsciousness.

 *-*-*-*-* 

A lone fox stalked the dark and dank hallways, hiding itself in the shadows and freezing whenever it sensed movement.  When it was certain the coast was clear the fox silently tip-toed its way up the stony staircase, dampening its white, fluffy paw in the muddy puddle on the step due to a drip on the ceiling.  As the fox crossed the narrow corridor, making sure all the while to keep clear of the metal bars that covered the sides of the hallway, it noticed a shadowy, cloaked figure, whose entire presence felt as if the fox was swimming in a reservoir covered in a thick layer of ice.  It was the coldest cold.  The figure however moved right past the fox, not even acknowledging its existence in the slightest and floated down the hall.  The fox immediately relaxed and continued on its mission through the dark, sinister, horror-filled maze, until it came to a certain set of metal bars and was able to slip through them due to its small frame.  Inside was a frail, curled up body with a thin, grey, dirty gown hanging from the figure.  A man with a thick, dark beard and long hair looked up through glassy, blue eyes, his wary, and aggressive expression suddenly softened and his face was suddenly twisted into an anguished smile.

“My darling girl!” breathed Alkzar Maura.

From the darkness stepped not the fox, but a breath-taking young seventeen year old with shining hair like the sun and eyes a powder blue, her smile sad and tormented to see her father’s condition worsening.

“Hello father.” Sydney whispered, stepping into her father’s arms.

 *-*-*-*-* 

_Sydney played with a curly strand of her sandy hair as she sat through her Transfiguration class with professor McGonagall standing describing the many depths and levels of human transfiguration as she successfully managed to distort her facial features in order to completely disguise herself, the only possible way of confirming her identity would be the clothes she had on her back, the spectacles perched on the end of her nose and the tight bun that remained on the top of her head.  Sydney looked around and noticed behind her that Peter and Remus appeared to be performing a gluing charm to the bottom of the oblivious James’ feet while Sirius glanced towards the mischievous boys, smirking, he stole a look at Sydney and winked audaciously.  Blushing disgustedly, Sydney snapped her head forwards and shook her head indignantly.  She’d get him back for making a fool out of her, she always did._

_Once McGonagall had finished her lecture it was the student’s turn to practise transforming themselves by altering and disfiguring parts of their bodies.  As all the pupils of the class began chanting the incantation and (most of the students) using the correct wrist movement.  Sydney made the wrist movement and murmured the incantation while pointing her wand in a certain direction behind her.  She turned her head slightly to see if any damage had been done but to her great disappointment, Sirius Black was still sitting behind her, concentrating on his spell.  He did however manage to catch Sydney look at him, to which he returned with a smirk and he the continued to wiggle his eyebrows at her.  Sydney huffed at her failed attempt, but kept on trying.  After her fifth attempt she suddenly heard a cry from behind her._

_“Sirius, your hair!” she could hear Farrah screech._

_Sydney bit down on her lip and slowly turned her head.  In the corner of her eye she could see Sirius frantically waving at his hair.  She then turned fully to watch the entertainment just as James had attempted to get up to help his friend however fell flat back into his chair due to the gluing charm that had been placed earlier.  The marauders were in anarchy.  Remus was frantically trying to calm Sirius down as Sirius had already spotted the perpetrator and was glaring viciously, and frantically attempting to lunge at the sniggering girl.  Peter was merely sitting in his chair gobsmacked while James was swatting him in in order to force him to help their friend.  Sydney had transformed Sirius’ normally gorgeous locks into slimy, greasy wisps of hair that resembled that of Severus Snape’s, the only differing factor of Sirius and Severus’ hair was that Sirius’ was now a rather snotty coloured green.  Sirius hair was a rather touchy subject if anyone was unable to tell.  Sydney bit down on her lip and winked cheekily at Sirius, antagonising the fury filled boy more._

_“Mr Black, calm yourself!” shouted the irritated professor and with a swish of her wand, Sirius was completely back to normal, apart from his thunderous glare which was aimed at Sydney.  So all was rather normal._

_Sydney could never help herself, Sirius was just too much fun to provoke.  She got a little adrenaline rush with every scowl, a little tummy tingle with every glare he shot her and a jittery, warm, fleeting feeling spreading throughout her extremities every time he yelled in her face._

_After class she found herself yet again going toe to toe with Sirius in a battle of ‘anything you can do I can do better’.  Not the ‘Calamity Jane song, but you get the gist._

_“Well Maura it seems as though once again you’ve completely outdone yourself in the competition of the world’s biggest bitch.” Sirius spat._

_Sydney folded her arms and leaned against the stone wall of the castle. “What about the time I called you Regulus for a week?” Sydney smirked, licking her lips deviously “Or how about the time I convinced the female population of Hogwarts that you had Genital Dragon Warts?”_

_Sirius quickly advanced on the teenage girl in the deserted corridor, she was unsure on why the other three quarters of the marauders had left Sirius alone with Sydney, but right now all she could concentrate on was angering Sirius.  He closed the gap between the two and with a wild look in his eyes breathed deeply._

_“Those are very silly, dangerous things to bring up Maura,” he growled “Especially when I have you all to myself.”_

_“What can I say?” purred Sydney “I find that nothing is really worth pursuing if it isn’t a little bit dangerous.”_

_Sydney had begun to feel as if there was a magnetic pull between her and Sirius, as if something deep within her body was growing red hot and spreading throughout her body, radiating heat most within her loins, her stomach twisted and tossed at the boy before her, her eyes glazed over and her lips went dry.  Dampening them, she felt herself brushing her chest against Sirius’, her eyes swept over his lips and then flickered back up to his stormy, grey orbs.  She stood on her tip toes and crashed her lips against his as a flurry of lust and passion took over her body and senses and within seconds she felt him respond with the same ferocity if not more.  She soon enough realised she was being pushed back by him and as soon as she thought she was about to hit the wall, she heard a tiny click and comprehended where Sirius was actually taking her.  She smiled into his full, luscious lips as he closed the broom cupboard door behind them._

____

Sydney allowed her eyes to open abruptly and sat bolt upright in the Gryffindor four-poster bed, the crimson curtains shut around her.  The back of her neck was sweating and her breaths were coming in short gasps.  A look of pure horror was etched across her normally care-free face.  She fanned her hot face with one hand and pulled her hair up with another.  She then took her other hand and ran it through her hair, now holding her head in both hands, trying to forget what she had just dreamt.

“Oh Godric, no!” She breathed.

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: Hi guys :) Welcome to my Sirius / OC story! Hope you enjoy! I'm gonna be getting chapter's out fast so please let me know what you think and how you think the story's gonna pan out. Please leave comments and kudos if you enjoy! I'd love to know what you enjoyed / what you thought could be better (always looking to improve my writing & story telling skills!). Also let me know if there's anything that needs explaining!


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